When I arrived in New York City to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, I was expecting a fair amount of that deference to power cleverly disguised as “objectivity” from my education. Funnily enough, though, it was a Columbia professor who pointed me to The Indypendent if I ever wanted to escape those boundaries.

Escaped them I have. While the bulk of the media was propagating false narratives about our campus, ones that eventually led to federal diktats and campus crackdowns against pro-Palestine speech and activism, The Indy was doing something quite different. Over my time writing for The Indy, I have covered everything from Columbia’s gentrification of West Harlem to how administrators negotiated in bad faith during a pro-Palestine sit-in at Barnard. Embracing multimedia, I also appeared on The Indy’s radio show and published photos and videos on these and other topics.

Critical reporting like this would scarcely get past many other editors — if they even let you cover it in the first place. But at The Indy, the editors hold the firm conviction that the best way to understand the truth is to understand not just the what, but the how and why undergirding our systems. Despite what many in legacy media would want you to believe, this doesn’t come at the cost of accuracy. Every edit I received was rigorous with a top priority of truth.

In times like these, The Indy serves as a unique and invaluable site for counter-narratives. True to its name, it is an independent voice for people of conscience who see our modern horrors and know a better world is possible.

If you believe the old adage that the purpose of journalism is to afflict the comfortable while comforting the afflicted, you should support The Indypendent.