Expect a long and quarrelsome council meeting this Tuesday. The meeting starts at 10am, but there are so many weighty and controversial issues on the agenda that it will likely go well into the evening, and council may possibly have to reconvene on Wednesday to complete its work. I’ll discuss four issues here: proposed changes...
引入……哈利法克斯Examiner
Well, here’s the new site, the Halifax Examiner. I can not adequately express my deep appreciation to Natalie Chavarie, El Jones, Robyn McNeil, Brenden Sommerhalder, Graham Steele, Kate Watson, and Jeff White for their very kind words and the time they committed in creating the above video. Please watch! Also, I must thank my family, […]
Two decades of world-class delusion
How Halifax’s big dreams have become a nightmare, and what needs to happen to make the city a great place to live. by Tim Bousquet This article was awarded the gold medal for Commentary at the 2013 Atlantic Journalism Awards. It was first published in The Coast, on July 11, 2013. After “drop the bomb,” […]
Commonwealth Games investigation part two: where the money went
Public money, private players: The Coast uncovers the paper trail of where $8.5 million in public money was spent by the Halifax 2014 bid committee. by Tim Bousquet This article first appeared in The Coast, on March 13, 2008. A year ago last Saturday, Halifax’s Commonwealth Games bid collapsed in acrimony. Politicians pointed fingers at […]
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 […]