Distracts Public From Real Issue
The battle at hand is not against the police. It’s against institutional racism. Incendiary cries from the likes of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani that the protesters and President Barack Obama are the reasons for the recent deaths of two NYPD officers at the hands of one man only distort the focus. The protesters march, mostly in peace, for justice and to end violence against Black men by the police. That remains the focal point.
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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