In March, The Classic was invited to a special screening of Breaking the News, a 2023 documentary documenting the founding of The 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom committed to reporting on gender, politics, and policy, focusing on women and LGBTQ+ communities. Following the screening, students participated in a live Q&A session with one of the film’s producers and co-directors, Princess Hairston.
The documentary follows the creation and evolution of The 19th during pivotal national events: the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 presidential election. It spotlights both personal and professional challenges faced by women in the newsroom, with a white male dominated field, including financial uncertainty and the ongoing effort to create a more inclusive model of journalism.
“We were documenting a newsroom trying to tell untold stories, while we were also navigating our challenges as a diverse team of filmmakers,” Hairston said during the Q&A. “It was really important that we reflected the same values behind the camera that The 19th was trying to represent in their reporting.”
The screening arrived at a particularly relevant time for conversations around press freedom. In May 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding the National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS. While the order didn’t immediately strip funding, it raised serious concerns about political influence over public media. Hairston noted that The 19th’s independence is part of what makes its journalism resilient. “They weren’t beholden to the same expectations as legacy outlets,” she said. “That gave them the freedom to shape a newsroom built on trust and representation.”
Hairston also emphasized how The 19th worked to foster a supportive, nontraditional newsroom environment. “There was a lot of work that they did behind and in front of the camera,” she said. “They just did not want to create that sterile environment they were used to having worked in big newsrooms before.”
When asked about the editorial process, Hairston explained the massive amount of footage and decision-making involved in creating the film. “We had, I mean, the Zoom calls alone; I think it was 500 hours of footage,” she said, describing how the story was crafted over two years. “[In documentary filmmaking] the story is written by the editors. It’s not scripted, making the post-production process much more important.”
Reflecting on the experience of documenting The 19th, Hairston said she came away with deeper insight into the ongoing challenges around gender and identity in media spaces. “Even if you are actively trying to do a lot of the work to change some of the way we look at gender—It’s a constant process,” she said.
One student viewer said after the screening, “The film took me through the 2020 election, and I re-felt all the emotion, even though I, of course, already knew what was going to happen.”
