In 2017 when disaster strikes, the media is never far behind. Technology has made it possible for journalists to report the news in real time, whether from a broadcast, through social media or via the remote capabilities now afforded by the internet.
But, 100 years ago it was a very different story for reporters had little more than typewriters, primitive phones, and a telegraph service.
B次元官网网址淚n an instant, nothing worked,B次元官网网址� Michael Dupuis writes in the opening pages of . But reporters got to work anyway, some filing stories a mere hour after a French cargo ship collided with a Norwegian vessel in the waters of the Halifax Harbour, wiping out the northern half of the maritime city, killing thousands of people just after 9 a.m., Dec. 6, 1917.
B次元官网网址淭his is about honouring the journalists who under the most difficult circumstances covered CanadaB次元官网网址檚 worst maritime disaster,B次元官网网址� says Dupuis who dedicated his book to marine reporter John B次元官网网址淛ackB次元官网网址� Ronayne, one of the first who rushed to the water to investigate a burning ship and was fatally injured as a result of the blast.
Dupuis, a local historian, writer and former teacher, says it was partly by accident Bearing Witness came to be at all. While working on a chapter for a book about Canadian journalists who covered the sinking of the Titanic, he discovered two Ottawa-based reporters covering that story were, five years later, assigned to the story of the explosion in the Halifax Harbour.
B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 been an awful lot written about the explosion,B次元官网网址� Dupuis points out, but none from the perspective of the journalists who were there.
B次元官网网址淚t was a tough assignment,B次元官网网址� he says of those first sent to the harbour. B次元官网网址淩eporters were there to get the facts. There was a lot of dead people, a lot of injuries, and you think B次元官网网址� my goodness, how could they see what they saw and write so objectively?B次元官网网址�
A story has to be compelling to buy a book, Dupuis says and he knew he had something unique when he pitched the idea to .
They set a date of 2017 B次元官网网址� the 100th anniversary of the disaster B次元官网网址� to publish, and Dupuis set to work tracking down the stories of some two dozen journalists, only two of whom were women.
B次元官网网址淩eporting in those days was hard-nosed,B次元官网网址� he says, and much of it was graphic. B次元官网网址淲ithout the press getting the story out, how on earth would the relief and recovery efforts have taken place in 1917?B次元官网网址�
When Dupuis launched the book in June in at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, five descendants of the journalists featured in the book attended, three from the U.S. He says he was asked how he was able to verify the accounts of those B次元官网网址渇irst respondersB次元官网网址� who came from across the country, and was proud to discover that 95 per cent of what was originally reported in 1917 was accurate.
In the book, he includes a quote from a former publisher of the Washington Post that reads, B次元官网网址渏ournalism is the first rough draft of history.B次元官网网址� That idea as well as other insights from Bearing Witness will be the focus of DupuisB次元官网网址� at 2:30 p.m.
Dupuis is philosophical about it all now that the book is out and the journalists have seen some recognition. The book is in libraries in provinces across Canada, and as a historian, thatB次元官网网址檚 a win, he says. And while he doesnB次元官网网址檛 consider himself a journalist, despite his penchant for researching and writing about them, he does share with them one similarity.
B次元官网网址淢y goal was to get the story out,B次元官网网址� he says.
