FeaturesPublic Eye comes to an end

Public Eye comes to an end

This article was published on November 24, 2011 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By Joe Johnson (The Cascade) – Email

Print Edition: November 23, 2011

British Columbia has just lost what might have one of the greatest, if not the greatest, providers of information and accountability we have ever seen. Public Eye has been a light shining on both public and private institutions, as well as public and private figures, to expose all the little areas that may potentially have been overlooked. Unfortunately, after eight years that light has burned out as the business model on which Public Eye was based upon proved to simply be unsustainable. Sean Holman, the one man show behind the website has had to finally succumb to the costs and call a suspension.

Over the eight year span, Holman managed to publish thousands of stories. The majority of the information being found either from leaked documents or Freedom of Information requests. Exposed were things such as behind the scene actions of the BC NDP which lead to Carole James resigning as leader, and also contracts given to companies with Liberal ties, by the Liberal government, over the HST. Public Eye was an enterprise that did not shy away from anyone, or from any political party. Everything was taken to account, and rightly so. Public Eye was a service to our province.

In fact, it was such a service that it will be difficult to replace. Of all FOI requests within the province, Public Eye was responsible for 25 per cent. That’s one man, essentially, providing his life to comb through a vast amount of information in a valiant effort to dig for the truth. So it’s no wonder that there are some who are having a field day now that operations have been halted. This is especially true for the Liberal government sitting in power. They no longer have to worry about Holman’s oversight. In fact, there’s now a good chance that a number of questionable practices may not be caught. This isn’t to suggest that the Liberals are any more or less dirty than any other party, but only that any governing party should be watched doggedly.

Holman, himself, is a man of intellect. A journalism professor at the University of Victoria in the Writing department, he has in the past written for the likes of The Vancouver Sun and 24 Hours. Currently he hosts a radio show on CFAX 1070. But it is his belief and drive in investigative journalism and finding the truth that allowed him to press on for nearly a decade, all while fighting for a public that gave him very little.

So little, really, that it’s why he had to halt any further efforts. With a visitor count of 200,000 unique hits in the last year alone, he had only 60 donors contributing. This is all while spending somewhere between 12-14 hours of every day analyzing and reporting. Even with advertisements, it wasn’t enough. We let him down.

But then, what does this all mean? It means that the amount of information on those who lead this province has greatly declined. It means that accountability has taken a hit. And it means that the level of democracy we are capable of achieving has been diminished. This is true because Public Eye is like nothing before it, and nothing has come along to be comparable.

However, we as a society can change this. We can change the decline of investigative journalism in BC and Canada. And we can do this by becoming more active in showing an interest in those hard hitting journalists who are working on our behalf. The power of the net can be harnessed to provide a multitude of platforms and revenue streams on which we can express that interest as a financial support. In the case of Public Eye, it’s just a matter of finding the right balance. There are good examples of this in The Tyee and the Georgia Straight. Both of which are great independent media. But they are still no Public Eye.

Holman deserves every bit of credit due for his service. At the end of it all, above the accountability and exposing of truth, he demonstrated what it means to be a real journalist – setting an example out there for many students and professionals alike.

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