The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is still recognized today as one of the most notorious cases of prolonged and knowing violation of human subjects, according to a report titled “Why African Americans May Not Be Participating in Clinical Trials.” The study used mostly poor, illiterate Blacks who were infected with syphilis. “The study was designed to document the natural history of syphilis,” the report states. One of the main ethical issues, though there were many with this study, was the fact that participants were not given penicillin once it emerged as a standard treatment for syphilis in the 1930s nor were they made aware that there were effective treatment options for the disease.
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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