5 Cape Breton Journalists We're Lucky to Have - Who's Who?

Cape Breton has a major achilles' heel. Somehow year after year, our in-over-their-head leadership of all stripes have convinced people that optimism alone will turn everything around. And if you dare raise an eyebrow at any of their positive schemes, you shall therefore be branded a naysayer.

Membership has its privileges. You have a cheap seat reserved for you at Tim Horton's. The coffee is hot, the donuts are sugary, and you're free to snicker with your miserable brethren. For surely, you are a negative person. And clearly, everything would be better if you and your kind would simply start to see things less clearly. There is no need for details or questions. You should think of the state of Cape Breton as more of a movie where we're scripted to prevail in about 2 hours.

Granted, there are those who are truly negative. They'll go out of their way to be displeased. They'll go on a 5-minute tirade at Burger King, expressing their outrage to the teenager who didn't remove the tomato from their Whopper. But...

There are many intelligent people still here in Cape Breton who understand the value of critical thinking.

If you forgot to put the lug nuts on your tire, no amount of optimism about how good a job you did are going to keep the wheel on. And you'd be quite upset if someone was nearby and noticed that you forgot, but didn't bother to tell you as you drove away.

So I want to offer some appreciation for four of our journalists who don't mind speaking up when they see harebrained schemes that are missing their lug nuts. They ask questions. They bring it to our attention. They provide an opportunity for discussion. They provide a way for us to figure out how to keep the wheels from falling off.

My fifth choice has a skillset that is vastly underappreciated among our journalism, government, organization, and business communities.

If you don't know any one of the names on this list, I strongly encourage you to seek them out. If you do, you'll have a much better understanding of our island.

#1 Mary Campbell, Cape Breton Spectator

When Mary Campbell arrived back in Cape Breton, the days of fluffy coverage ended. It would be difficult to find anyone that can outwork her on research. From freedom of information requests, to microfilm, to any data source you can imagine, Mary digs in. Her weekly publication format with the Cape Breton Spectator makes this possible. She is her own boss, and she doesn't impose a daily quota that would make her investigative approach impossible. Her writing style is no nonsense. She doesn't wear kid gloves. When people try to spin their way out of something, she dissects the language for us. Her work leads the charge in compelling much needed transparency and accountability.

#2 Tom Ayers, Local Xpress

Tom Ayers has a depth of knowledge from his years of local journalism. But it's the meticulousness of his process, great writing, and a level of admirable objectivity that makes his work so valuable. He's able to consistently avoid drifting too far into the territory of false balance. There are times when the positions of two sides aren't equal, and shouldn't be treated as such. Tom possesses keen instinct on where the aspects of the story that matter are to be found. Considering that he's been writing for Local Xpress while striking from the Chronicle Herald for a year now, his work is even more impressive.

#3 Wendy Bergfeldt, CBC Mainstreet Cape Breton

Wendy is tapped into the pulse of what is happening on the island. What she covers is only a fraction of what she is tracking behind the scenes. And she's as equally up to speed on arts and culture as she is on the intimate details of local politics and business deals. She's also the most community minded of my five picks. As someone who loves her community, the fact that she doesn't ask self-serving questions during her interviews is even more exemplary. When it matters, her interviews always contain a compelling question, delivered with a timeliness and precision. She'll follow up when her questions are dodged, or the answers go off on tangents. If you pay close attention, you can see that she's able to pivot on her line of questioning as something more significant stands out. Meanwhile, this is most often done live on the radio.

#4 Steve Sutherland, CBC Information Morning Cape Breton

Two out of five of my choices go to CBC radio. It's difficult not to appreciate what Steve and Wendy do. Steve has the ability to ask questions, and is tremendously skilled at dealing with push back. He often says what the listener is thinking, as opposed to letting us down and moving on to softer questions. However, he probes for the answer while keeping the interviewee non-confrontational. His style asks the right questions, but keeps the interview flowing without the subjects clamming up. His objectivity and integrity was demonstrated in full force during his moderation of the Cecil Clarke - Rankin MacSween mayoral debate. When biased questions came from the floor, he swatted them back immediately. If the audience member wasn't able to formulate them in a fair way, he'd do it for them, presenting a replacement question on the fly. And those replacement questions were fair to both parties.

#5 Frankie MacDonald, YouTube

Frankie isn't a professional journalist, nor a meteorologist. However, he's earned his place on this list for more than just the recognition of his popularity. He's proven to be able to do something better than even each of my first four choices. And we can learn from him. Firstly, if you pay attention to Frankie's channel, you'll note that he likes to do predictions. He consistently creates videos for any international location that is likely to experience either a storm or earthquake activity. What this implies is that he's scouring the Internet for meteorological info well in advance. It would be easy to do a video announcing a storm the day before, and after media reports are already widespread. However, he's getting out in front of these stories. Secondly, where he's promoting his weather alerts or even videos of himself as a guy dancing and eating pretend hot dogs, he is an active social media marketer. He's utilizing more social media networks and features, and has a greater following than all of the great journalists I've just showcased above. Frankie isn't a journalist by profession. But with an objective look at what he is doing, he's setting a strong example. If you have good information to share, use every channel you can to promote. He does, and we all should. Don't be shy about sharing good ideas and putting yourself out there. Note: For the life of me, I can't figure out why a local pizza shop or Chinese food restaurant hasn't recruited him as a advertising personality.

Who is your favorite journalist in Cape Breton?

NOTE:  The views expressed above are my own and do not represent lokol (goCapeBreton.com). Read more

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https://capebreton.lokol.me/5-cape-breton-journalists-were-lucky-to-have---whos-who
A list of my picks for five of our most valuable journalists in Cape Breton.
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Michael MacNeil Follow Me
All five deserve a big "Thank you" and you are right we're lucky to have them
Mike Johnson Follow Me
Joe, thanks for a great article. In a Municipal environment where truth is a victim, facts are manipulated, and blind sycophant support runs rampant, we all need to recognize and praise those few who stand up for accurate investigation and reporting. A vigorous and inquisitive media, holding government accountable, and striving for information and transparency is one of the corner stones of a working democracy. Bravo!

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