A Different Kind of Journalism

Does it matter who reports the news? Not which network or which newspaper, but rather which reporter? This is an important question. In the aggregational din of digital media, the individual reporter’s voice struggles harder each day to be heard. Much “news” today is a cacophonous mash-up produced under gruelling pressure with scant room for investigation, let alone reflection. What was once a willing audience is now a restive crowd, wary of authoritative expression, often claiming an equal right to define and disseminate the news.

Into this troubling landscape drops a gripping biography of a tireless reporter whose voice was confident, courageous and unmistakable. From 1932 to 1956, in print and on the radio, Matthew Halton related momentous events to Canadians in reports saturated with significance. Class struggle and coronation in Britain, the ominous rise of Nazi Germany, the civil war in Spain, appeasement at Munich and, finally, the Second World War—Halton...