The journalist selected to moderate the now-canceled Wisconsin Broadcasters Association gubernatorial debate between Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley has spent more than a decade promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in American newsrooms.
Jill Geisler, who was slated to moderate the October debate, has been a longtime leader of the News Leaders Association’s Emerging Leaders Institute, a program specifically designed to advance journalists from underrepresented groups into newsroom management.
Geisler and fellow journalist Alfredo Carbajal organized NLA’s programs for “diverse emerging leaders” beginning in 2012. The program traces its roots to the organization’s “Minority Leadership Institute” and eventually became known as the “Emerging Leaders Institute for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.”
According to NLA, the program’s mission was to support journalists underrepresented in management “specifically by race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.” Its curriculum taught management and leadership skills “through the lens of leading a diverse, successful team.”
Geisler’s involvement went beyond serving as an occasional speaker. She co-directed the program, helped organize its faculty and programming and remained one of its leaders for more than a decade. In 2022, NLA identified Geisler as the program’s co-director as she presided over the graduation of its DEI fellows.
Her advocacy for DEI has extended into her own work and writings.
In 2019, Geisler led a webinar on “unconscious bias” in which she praised The New York Times’ controversial 1619 Project, which sought to “reframe” American history as irredeemably racist, rooted in slavery and systemic racism.
The project initially suggested that 1619—not 1776—marked America’s “true founding” and claimed that protecting slavery was “one of the primary reasons” colonists declared independence from Britain. The Times later softened that claim after prominent historians disputed its accuracy.
In a 2022 column about “inclusive leadership and allyship,” Geisler wrote that women, people of color and LGBTQ employees are often burdened with additional work combating “bias, ignorance, hate, inequity, and injustice.” That “invisible work” that Geisler is referring to includes participating on diversity committees and being included on task forces to build out diversity–the same practices Geisler herself has called “essential work” and has encouraged newsrooms to pursue. Geisler also said that managers should recognize and reward participation in DEI activities by “build(ing) it into evaluation and compensation structures.”
Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Geisler also urged journalists covering protests and riots to not just cover protest stories, but to also “start covering systemic racism.” While calling on journalists to actively take up the mantle of the social justice cause, Geisler also calls for a reexamination of the role that “majority white newsrooms” have played in framing news coverage over the years, including chastizing reporters for covering “overnight crime” rather than exploring the systemic complexities of the criminal justice system. Geisler, herself, is white.
News Organization Pushed ‘Structural Change’ in Media
While Geisler was helping lead its Emerging Leaders program, the News Leaders Association was increasingly embracing a more aggressive approach to DEI.
In June 2020, following the death of George Floyd, Gesiler’s organization declared it was “no longer asking” newsroom leaders to pursue diversity initiatives but was instead “demanding” significant action.
Among other recommendations, NLA called on newsrooms to set a 90-day goal for diversifying their leadership and encouraged white newsroom leaders to examine their own racial “blind spots.” It also called for giving “space, influence, and resources” — including paid leadership positions — to employees committed to DEI initiatives while tasking newsrooms to “recognize that there are limits imposed by homogeneity in leadership in your organization.”
The NLA Board of Directors, in its statement, also said that it would partner with race-based “affinity groups” to accomplish its goal.
The organization also challenged traditional notions of journalistic objectivity, arguing that even journalists who claim to be objective bring personal and cultural perspectives informed by their lived experiences into their reporting.
Perhaps most notably, University of Virginia professor Meredith Clark, who worked with NLA on the initiative, said the organization’s reforms should help journalism counter the influence of “white supremacy” that she argued had characterized American news media since its inception.
NLA subsequently expanded its diversity efforts beyond race and sex to include gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, disability and other categories while pledging to “center” the experiences of journalists from marginalized groups.
In June of 2021, the NLA hosted a session related to “Support for LGBTQ journalists,” where it referred to queerness as a “super power” in the world of journalism. Panelists also encouraged journalists to share their LGBTQ identity on their resumes to test whether or not a newsroom is inclusive, and also encouraged them to include their pronouns in their bylines. Journalists were also encouraged to “reframe conversations around Pride, relationships, identity, parenting, and transgender issues” through an “LGBTQ lens.”
Importantly, these sessions were not recorded in an effort to preserve the “safe spaces” around conversation around LGBTQ journalism.
A Question of Neutrality
While Geisler has been praised within the echo chamber of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association for conducting “fair and informative” debates, her lengthy record of DEI advocacy raises questions about her selection as a supposedly neutral moderator for one of Wisconsin’s highest-profile political debates—particularly given Democrat David Crowley’s own emphasis on racial equity as Milwaukee County Executive. Under Crowley, Milwaukee County made achieving racial equity a central goal of his administration and embedded a “Racial Equity Budget Tool” into the county budgeting process, requiring departments to evaluate spending decisions through a racial-equity lens.
Milwaukee County is currently facing a $169 million budget deficit over the next five years.
Geisler’s public social-media activity adds another dimension to those questions.
A review of her publicly available and archived posts shows a recurring pattern of sharing reporting and commentary critical of President Donald Trump and his administration, particularly on issues involving the media and press freedom. Searches have not yet uncovered a comparable volume of criticism directed toward prominent Democratic politicians.
Geisler’s X and BlueSky Social accounts consist almost exclusively of reposts of news stories criticizing President Trump and other Republican officials, with no mention of controversial leftist politicians and political figures such as Graham Platner, Hasan Piker, or Abdul El-Sayed.
While Geisler rarely uses her social media accounts to explicitly editorialize, the stories and causes she chooses to amplify—and those she largely ignores—offer a window into the issues and perspectives she prioritizes.
Between her years leading a program explicitly dedicated to DEI, her writings on racial justice and “inclusive leadership,” and her public social media footprint, Geisler’s record raises questions about her selection as a supposedly neutral moderator for one of Wisconsin’s highest-profile political debates.
Geisler once wrote that journalists should use their power and privilege to become allies in a “world of overabundant bias.”
Fortunately, with the WBA debate now canceled, Wisconsin voters won’t have to see Geisler’s own overabundant biases play out on the debate stage.
