In one of the better post-election analyses trying to explain why the mainstream media wrongly claimed Hillary Clinton had the election locked-up, Nate Silver of Five Thirty Eight detailed a fundamentally broken media establishment.

In his piece, “There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble,” Silver explains that one of the major flaws of political journalism in the United States is that it runs on groupthink centered around media conglomerates in New York and Washington. Thanks to the decline in local newspapers and independent blogs, there are no longer serious checks on this “Northeast Corridor conventional wisdom run amok.”

The result? Readers don’t get the full story. Or, in many cases, they get the wrong story.

The solution to this broken system is to offer a strong platform for a wider range of voices, especially those voices disinterested in representing and serving elite interests. We believe power is already well-represented and their views do not need more exposure.

This kind of editorial independence requires a grassroots funding model for journalism instead of one that caters to corporate or elite interests. We are beholden to our readers, not angel investors, advertisers, or foundation grants.

Shadowproof is asking for your help to give a platform to talented and fearless journalists, who will bring a different view and expertise to the issues facing America and beyond.

Since our launch at the end of 2015, our readers’ support has allows us to fund several important pieces of freelance and investigative journalism. Reader donations are what funded journalist Rania Khalek’s unparalleled on-the-ground coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and Roqayah Chamseddine’s profiles of the lives of Muslims in America. Our readers gave a platform to journalists to cover corruption in the presidential debates, weapons funding, environmental activism, prison medicine and contraband, and a lot more.

Looking ahead to the rest of this year, we hope our readers will give us the support we need to have a budget for journalism focused on education, labor, Wall Street, and climate change. We also hope our readers will back us in our efforts to publish in-depth analysis and coverage of efforts to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that you will not find elsewhere.

Our ability to do this depends on the support of readers like you. Please make a donation or become a Shadowproof member for as little as $5 per month to help us provide a platform to a new generation of independent and adversarial journalists at a critical time for so many movements.