Clarence Thomas
In June 2013, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas helped dismantle a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, one of the pillars of the civil rights movement. He has also made it clear that if he had his way, he would bury another bastion: affirmative action.
Allen West
Former Republican Florida Congressman Allen West said on Fox News: “Barack Hussein Obama” is nothing more than a “low-level socialist agitator.”
This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.
For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.
Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.
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