Holly Doan - What Is The Role Of Investigative Journalism In A Free Society?

In this episode of The Curious Task, host Alex Aragona interviews award-winning journalist Holly Doan about the evolving role of investigative journalism in a free society. Doan, publisher of Black Locks Reporter, explains how her outlet focuses on accountability journalism—exposing government waste, cronyism, and mismanagement by analyzing official documents, audits, and committee proceedings that mainstream media often overlooks. She argues that mainstream media has largely abandoned this watchdog role due to financial collapse, editorial hollowing, and government subsidies that compromise independence. Doan critiques Canada’s media subsidies, particularly the income tax support to publishers, which she says are secret, poorly monitored, and often misused—such as paying GST bills or hiring temporary foreign workers—rather than funding investigative work. She also expresses deep skepticism about the CBC, arguing it has become irrelevant and self-serving, serving an 'audience of one' (the Minister of Heritage) rather than the public. Doan traces the decline of rigorous journalism to changes in newsroom culture: the loss of experienced editors, the rise of academically trained journalists with activist leanings, and a shift from fact-finding to commentary and ideology. She highlights how Canadian media is overly focused on American news cycles, undermining cultural sovereignty and diverting attention from pressing domestic issues like housing, youth disengagement, and parliamentary accountability. Ultimately, she calls for a return to document-based journalism, transparency, and public pressure to demand better reporting. The key takeaways from the conversation are: 1) Accountability journalism—rooted in public documents and data—is essential for a functioning democracy and can be done without bias by simply reporting facts; 2) Government subsidies to media create dangerous dependencies and undermine independence, and should be replaced with reader subsidies; 3) Mainstream media’s decline is not due to laziness but structural collapse, and the public must demand better through support for independent outlets; 4) The CBC and other legacy media have failed to adapt and should either transform or be downsized; 5) Journalists should be trained to prioritize fact-finding over ideology, and the public should hold them accountable by demanding transparency and truth. Doan ends with a 1939 quote: 'The press must keep pace with the times or quickly suffer the consequences,' underscoring that media evolution is inevitable and necessary.