Beginning a blog
Allow me to introduce myself. I'm a retired reporter, writer, research analyst. Over 15 years ago, I took a sabbatical from full time employment as an educational software developer to pursue writing and research on topics of personal interest. For the next few years, I tried to make a living as a free-lance writer working on investigative feature stories. The first story I worked on led me to the Wise Use Movement, a collection of anti-environmental front groups that originated in Rev. Moon's American Freedom Coalition (AFC.)
The leads I developed from this story led further into the Hard Right (to use Chip Berlet's term) and I ended up researching and occasionally writng about anti-gun control groups, right-wing fundraising, property rights, the militia movement, social network theory, anti-immigrant activity, human rights, domestic and international terrorism, internet fraud, Native American politics, international money laundering, quantitative financial analysis, the WTO protests, the anthrax attacks, the history of chemical and biological warfare, the background to the war in Iraq and a variety of other topics.
While I was pursuing this research and occasional writing, I developed a network of sources and contacts that frequently blossomed into colleagues, collaborators and personal friendships. Because many of the stories I worked on grew in importance and interest, I often found myself serving as source for others writing on the same topic. Consequently, I found myself working on research that never resulted in a published article, but my research ended up being cited in various influential or widely published stories. Probably the most extreme instance of this peculiar dynamic was the militia movement and the Oklahoma City bombing. Though I had about a year and a half of research into the story by the time of the bombing, I never published a story on it. Instead, I ended up as a widely quoted source. This dynamic persisted long enough to make it clear that if I was going to earn a living, I'd better find some kind of a better paying job than investigative reporting in the late 1990's. So I went back to work and continued my research and writing as more or less of an avocation. Strangely enough, it was after I abandoned writing as a profession that I wrote and published the most widely read story, an examination of the events surrounding the WTO protests in Seattle.
All of the topics I researched were interlinked because as I worked on one story, I developed leads and sources that led in different directions. One topic that particularly intersted me was the Moon Organization. As I continued my writng and reseach, I kept stumbling across the odd fact or story that would have been a side-track or diversion from the task at hand, but cast light on Moon and his peculiar relationship to American politics.
The recent blow-up at the Washington Times interested me enough to register for an account at TPM so I could participate in comments and discussion. My third comment was so wordy or had too many links in it. It triggered some sort of a filter that generated a message telling me that the comment would be held for review before posting. A little further digging led me to the MyTPM blogs and hence this post.
I'll be putting up occasional posts in which I try to share my synthesis of what I've learned so that it can assist the staff and readers at TPM. Relatively little of this is original research and I'll be putting up links, citations and references for fact-checking, source analysis and further research by others.
The leads I developed from this story led further into the Hard Right (to use Chip Berlet's term) and I ended up researching and occasionally writng about anti-gun control groups, right-wing fundraising, property rights, the militia movement, social network theory, anti-immigrant activity, human rights, domestic and international terrorism, internet fraud, Native American politics, international money laundering, quantitative financial analysis, the WTO protests, the anthrax attacks, the history of chemical and biological warfare, the background to the war in Iraq and a variety of other topics.
While I was pursuing this research and occasional writing, I developed a network of sources and contacts that frequently blossomed into colleagues, collaborators and personal friendships. Because many of the stories I worked on grew in importance and interest, I often found myself serving as source for others writing on the same topic. Consequently, I found myself working on research that never resulted in a published article, but my research ended up being cited in various influential or widely published stories. Probably the most extreme instance of this peculiar dynamic was the militia movement and the Oklahoma City bombing. Though I had about a year and a half of research into the story by the time of the bombing, I never published a story on it. Instead, I ended up as a widely quoted source. This dynamic persisted long enough to make it clear that if I was going to earn a living, I'd better find some kind of a better paying job than investigative reporting in the late 1990's. So I went back to work and continued my research and writing as more or less of an avocation. Strangely enough, it was after I abandoned writing as a profession that I wrote and published the most widely read story, an examination of the events surrounding the WTO protests in Seattle.
All of the topics I researched were interlinked because as I worked on one story, I developed leads and sources that led in different directions. One topic that particularly intersted me was the Moon Organization. As I continued my writng and reseach, I kept stumbling across the odd fact or story that would have been a side-track or diversion from the task at hand, but cast light on Moon and his peculiar relationship to American politics.
The recent blow-up at the Washington Times interested me enough to register for an account at TPM so I could participate in comments and discussion. My third comment was so wordy or had too many links in it. It triggered some sort of a filter that generated a message telling me that the comment would be held for review before posting. A little further digging led me to the MyTPM blogs and hence this post.
I'll be putting up occasional posts in which I try to share my synthesis of what I've learned so that it can assist the staff and readers at TPM. Relatively little of this is original research and I'll be putting up links, citations and references for fact-checking, source analysis and further research by others.
