Support Hollie's Independent Journalism

A few words from the site administrator.

Earlier this year in April, I stood in the courtyard of Georgetown University waiting for Hollie. I was meeting her there because she was giving a talk to a Graduate School class on independent journalism. I was in Washington D.C. to meet with various government agencies, and I thought it would be perfect to observe my friend discuss the world she worked journeying to so many parts of the world to find the story during turmoil and war.

I sat quietly listening to Hollie McKay for the next two hours talking about what it takes to find those stories and report them. I listened to her talk about the kind of approach and demeanor one must have to be a journalist observing events of the world interviewing people in the direst straits to tell their stories so a record of their time on earth would not disappear.

It was a moment of one human talking to other humans about what it takes to tell the story of humanity. I listened to my friend recant examples of her encounters in the field over the years describing things in the distinct language that I describe as Hollie McKay's reporting idioms, those particular words she uses in her writing highlighted by her Australian accent.

I smiled quietly because I've had the opportunity to live through all the news events, people, and places she talked about in real time with McKay as we have worked together over the years. There's a sense of pride in the moment watching her describe her career to graduate students studying international policy. What an opportunity for them to meet the female equivalent of a modern-day Ernest Hemingway. Hollie’s reporting is what the three-letter agencies of this world call an original source for actionable information. She is that gumshoe reporter trained in the streets of Los Angeles to dig for the stories behind the patina of Hollywood, one investigative step at a time, graduated to digging for the story in battlegrounds, clad in body armor, venturing to locations where SEALS would not tread.

And I wondered to myself how long can this go on? I'm an analyst and a technologist and I can see the threat of artificial intelligence on the horizon crowding out the kind of independent journalism that people like Hollie McKay represent.  Robots and software are not substitutes for ballet training combined with minefield clearing experience that result in exclusive photographs of the devastation of a MOAB bomb in Afghanistan, yup, she took those photos, or the ability to listen without judgment that can file thousands of stories painting vignettes of human struggle and survival against the adversities of genocide, rape, torture, organ harvesting, or generational war.

This type of journalism is a precious thing and it's important to support it. Since Hollie started this project in July of 2021, it has been a joy to see how many of you have come to subscribe and follow the journey of this expression of her independent journalism on Substack. This is the place where we put the stories and the back stories about her work. This is filling the voids that don’t fit in to the word limits or style guides of publications.  These are the vignettes that McKay believes are newsworthy that editors focused on pizazz that attracts Nielsen ratings and advertising revenues relegate to footnotes. It's the online equivalent of the talks she gives in person to students at graduate schools.

For those of you that follow Hollie’s work and value the importance of human independent journalism, I would like you to consider upgrading your subscriptions from free to paid as a show of support that independent journalism still has an important role to play in chronicling the story of humans on planet Earth.  It takes work to maintain a venue like this.  Original material takes time to research and effort to write. Hollie does gumshoe research and interviews for her stories, talking to actual people about the details of their experiences.  That’s why the vignettes have depth. You can’t get that from a cubicle news reporter or a simplistic vector algorithm best next word guessing computer program like ChatGPT. Audio and video interviews take time to transcribe, edit, and post-produce; all those things a new bureau must do to deliver the story professionally apply here as much as they do at FOX or the New York Times. Your support through financial sponsorship would be most appreciated.

Note: That’s my Honda Shadow in the photo. She’s a Harley girl.