We have incredible news to share: Thanks to your support, we just won the 2023 Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.
The award is especially significant because it is named after the closest thing we have to a patron saint: I.F. “Izzy” Stone, the pioneering investigative journalist who exposed racial discrimination, McCarthyism, and government deception related to the Vietnam War in his influential newsletter I.F. Stone's Weekly.
As the judges noted, “No news outlet is as thorough and relentless as The Lever in exposing the corrupting influence of corporate power on government and both major parties. From dark money influence on the Supreme Court to Medicare privatization to the dangers of deregulation to other topics, The Lever’s investigative team is on the corruption beat day after day. Led by 2015 Izzy Award winner David Sirota, The Lever is nonpartisan and subscriber funded, just like I.F. Stone’s Weekly.”
In announcing this year’s award, the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College highlighted the work of Lever senior editor Andrew Perez exposing the largest known political donation in U.S. history — Chicago businessman Barre Seid’s $1.6 billion dark money transfer to conservative operative Leonard Leo.
Click below to watch Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman announce the award:
It is a notable achievement to win such an auspicious honor less than three years after we launched. It’s true recognition of our unique, independent accountability journalism and its real-world impact. And, as we’ve proved with our recent groundbreaking coverage of the Norfolk Southern train derailment and the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, we’re just getting started.
The Lever, alongside other 2023 Izzy Award winners, will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the Park Center for Independent Media in late April. In the meantime, we hope you take a moment to feel good about what we are building together. We are making real progress in creating an independent media outlet that is so desperately needed.
