With new details such as how Rush got bum-rushed, The Coast tells the most complete story to date. by Tim Bousquet This article was first published in The Coast, on December 5, 2011. Last spring, Halifax’s now-infamous “concert scandal” broke when city staffer Cathie O’Toole revealed that mayor Peter Kelly and the city’s deputy CAO, […]
The Convention Centre Tower Play
哈利法克斯的维ream of being a world financial capital help Joe Ramia’s proposal, with an office tower on top, beat a higher-rated plan for the Cogswell Interchange? by Tim Bousquet This article first appeared in The Coast, on November 25, 2010. On Tuesday, February 26, 2008, Nova Scotia conquered Wall Street. That morning a chartered […]
Holly Bartlett’s unlikely journey
警方说,达尔豪斯的学生在她的death on the way home, but her family believes there’s more to the case. by Tim Bousquet This article first appeared in The Coast, on December 12, 2013. Update, February 24, 2014: Halifax Regional Police and Halifax District RCMP have announced an independent review of the police investigation […]
A trust betrayed: Peter Kelly and the estate of Mary Thibeault
This article was published by The Coast, on February 16, 2012. It won the Don MacGillivray Award for the best investigative reporting in Canada for 2012, the Atlantic Journalism Awards gold medal winner for Enterprise Reporting (print), the Canadian Association of Journalists award for best Community News reporting, and was one of six articles in […]
Investigative reporting: why anonymous sources are so important
Note: This article first appeared here, on May 2, 2014. This is my penultimate blog post before launching the new site—I’ll have one more next week, explaining exactly how the subscription model will work and asking for pre-subscriptions and founding contributions. Then I’ll take about a week to dive into reporting so I’ll have material […]
Context is everything: History as journalism
Note: This article first appeared here, on April 30, 2014. I’ve been avoiding writing about current events in these blog posts. This is a blog explaining my journalistic philosophy and hopes for the new website, which will be launched in a week or two. The new site will be full of the news and analysis...
It’s academic: engaging the university community
Note: This article first appeared here, on April 29, 2014. A few people have confused this blog with my soon-to-be-launched news website. But they are two different things. This blog is a platform for discussing some issues in journalism, for introducing myself to a wider audience, and for keeping myself writing while I do […]
Real journalism is adversarial journalism
Note: This article first appeared here, on April 28, 2014. I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia in the heyday of journalism. The Virginian Pilot arrived on our doorstep before I woke up, and my dad, a US Marine, would read the paper at the breakfast table, while also listening to an all-news station on a […]
Why comment sections are the cesspool of the internet, and what I’m going to do about it
Note: This article first appeared here, on April 26, 2014. Many of the problems of the news media—an oligopolistic, centralized corporate ownership, a “business” orientation that reflects the world view of the managerial and ownership classes while ignoring the concerns of working people, overpaid celebrity reporters with “insider” status, reporting that uses false equivalency to […]
Chasing web hits: media rope-a-dope leads to dumbed-down content
Note: This article first appeared here, on April 25, 2014. Wednesday and Thursday I discussed my unease with news media relying on advertising as the primary revenue generator. I argued that business model builds disincentives to cover stories or investigate issues that may adversely affect advertisers. Today and over the weekend I want to talk about how advertising […]