In the world of reporting, there is something of an invisible force that many people have heard of called the news cycle.
If you were to graph the life cycle of most news stories they will resemble a bell curve where interest grows to a peak before gradually declining as other stories roll out and grab attention, and go through the same cycle of their own.
As goes reader interest in a story I’ve written, so goes my attachment to it. Once a story has run its course, it fades from my mind and I’m on to the next story.
There are some stories, however, that stay with you. They follow you around like a lost puppy and attach themselves to you, and try as you might, you can't pull yourself away from them.
One particular story has become part of life for nearly two years now, reappearing every few weeks or at the very least, once a month.
In March of 2019, I was assigned to cover a protest downtown against a contractor who had allegedly ripped off a number of Sudburians by taking payments for jobs and never completing them.
That contractor was Dave Murray of EcoLife Home Improvements. He will be going to trial this March for more than 40 charges of fraud, a trial that I will be covering.
Over the course of the last two years, this story has always been on my stove so to speak, moving from back burner to front burner and back again, as the beleaguered contractor’s matter slowly made its way through the court system.
Coverage has admittedly been difficult at times as there have been more than a few disparaging words thrown my way as I've tried to stay down the middle of the road as best as possible when presenting the facts of the story.
In my reporting, it's always my goal to present both sides of the story, provide fair comment to parties on either side and avoid editorializing.
The issue with playing the centre line in a story that involves a business owner being arrested and losing his company and dozens of people losing a lot of money, is that both sides feel that they're not being treated fairly.
I covered a protest and reported what these citizens say has happened to them and I had the contractor calling me out for reporting "bulls**t".
When I interviewed said contractor, I had the customers he allegedly scammed telling me that I'm sympathizing with a crook and that he doesn't deserve a platform.
To both sides all I can say is it's my job to provide as fair and unbiased reporting of a story as I can, and once it's published, it's up to the court of public opinion to decide which side they're on.
There’s an old adage in journalism that advises, “report the story, don’t become the story”, which essentially means write what you see and hear and don’t allow yourself to become emotionally attached to the point that bias can creep into your reporting.
Admittedly, this is a lot easier said than done in the case of stories such as the one mentioned above.
We’re reporters, but we’re humans, too, and it’s hard not to let your emotions get ahold of you when you’re sitting across the table from someone who is near tears telling you about how a contractor made off with most of their life savings.
It’s also a tall task to keep yourself in check when the contractor in question is yelling at you over the phone, telling you that your reporting has ruined his family’s livelihood and that he’s going to sue you and the company you work for.
Having someone threaten to sue you is something of a rite of passage for a journalist, and while it’s never much of a worry so long as you’ve done your job properly, it’s still something that causes me to pause and ask myself, “was I unfair to this person?”
I’ve waded into some online debate on this story on a Facebook group for the people who have dealt with Dave Murray directly, whether it was working with him or hiring him for a home improvement project.
The group was a valuable resource as it was a meeting spot for everyone I wanted to make contact with in getting the full scope of the story. What started out as a very cordial relationship with the group faded somewhat as some of the more outspoken members didn’t appreciate me giving Murray a platform.
As is the case with some Facebook groups, especially a group of victims, the conversation can turn hostile and at times, conspiratorial.
My published stories were often shared in the group, but the comments that followed it often turned vitriolic as members expressed their disdain for this man.
This is another part of reporting in the age of social media that can be a minefield of sorts; I want to engage people with my stories, not incite them, and throughout the course of reporting on this story there was always a nagging feeling of “who am I going to piss off this time?”
I can sum up the coverage of this story with two very similar comments that came from either side of the fence, both directed at me in the same week.
During a less than pleasant telephone conversation with Dave, he said (between curse words), “You don’t care about the facts, you just care about clicks and making me look bad.”
That same week there was a negative review left on our Facebook page from a member of the aforementioned Facebook group, regarding the coverage of Dave’s side of the story, stating something along the lines of “report the full story, not just parts of it and don’t write stories to get pity for a criminal.”
One side thinks I’m being unfair and trying to make him look bad; the other thinks I’m being unfair and trying to make him look good.
You can’t please everyone when you shoot down the middle, and sometimes you just can’t please anyone.
Matt Durnan covers city hall and general news for Sudbury.com.
