A Quick Note on Why I'm Didn't Cover the Cst. Pfeifer Police Services Act Hearing – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

September 16, 2017
The Public Record’s mission is to provide high-quality coverage to enable all of us to fulfill our responsibilities of citizenship by ensuring accountable and transparent civic governance. As part that mandate, I’ve focused The Public Record on ensuring a permanent video record of nearly every meeting at City Hall – especially meeting that no other journalist or outlet covers.
There are two primary reasons I wasn’t there: City Hall meetings needed to be covered and every other media outlet was present at the Police Services Act hearing involving Councillor Matthew Green’s complaint. I’ve generally maintained in my journalistic practice that I either cover quasi-judicial proceedings from start-to-finish in their entirety to ensure my coverage accurately reflects and captures the nuances of the matter. I couldn’t do this without missing every meeting at City Hall this week – creating a large gap in our civic knowledge.
I know I have to make The Public Record sustainable, because we need more local insightful journalism. I need to be able to do more, focus more on my journalism, and hire Hamiltonians to cover more news. Even with a two person operation, I could’ve covered this hearing while ensuing The Public Record was at City Hall.
The reason I write this note, and post it publicly, is because I want to share with you the weighting I did. I share some with some of you a frustration that there wasn’t much analysis of the matter, the story focused on what was said and by whom, and I want to know more myself.
Those who emailed me prefaced with comments of understanding I’m just one person, I thank you for that.