Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Watson resigned the Toronto Star and accuses the newspaper of refusing to publish a story about the intrigue surrounding the discovery of a ship in the Arctic.
According to CBC News, Watson has discussed the reasons for quitting the newspaper on his blog, stating that federal authorities and others involved in searching for Sir John Franklin’s lost ships are accusing an expedition member of spreading “distorted and inaccurate accounts.”
Star publisher John Cruickshank denied Watson’s allegation in a staff memo, according to TheStar.com. “(Watson) speculates that the Prime Minister’s Office and a former editor of The Globe and Mail’s editorial page have convinced the Star to constrain this reporting,” Cruickshank wrote. “Let me publicly deny this extremely odd idea. There is no truth whatever to the suggestion.”
Watson told The Globe and Mail that on Tuesday, the day before he resigned, he had a brief meeting with Toronto Star’s editor-in-chief Michael Cooke, executive editor Paul Woods and one of the paper’s human resources representatives. According to Watson’s report, Cooke told the journalist that the newspaper was not interested in the story.
The source of the conflict surrounds a story about the Canadian search mission, backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that found the shipwrecked British vessel, HMS Erebus last year. Explorer Sir John Franklin set sail with the Erebus and the HMS Terror in 1845, but both ships disappeared in a watery Arctic grave with all 129 crew lost.
A surprisingly well-preserved shipwreck of the Erebus was found near King William Island, about 1,200 miles northwest of Toronto. The ship’s bronze bell was recovered by divers.
Watson was covering the story and aboard the lead search vessel and has maintained that official accounts are distorted and incorrect. He claims the Star has repeatedly blocked his attempts in telling the story and blames someone close to the Prime Minister’s office, who has influence at the paper.
Watson is a veteran war correspondent who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for photography and has worked for other major publications including The Los Angeles Times.
Note: Watson’s blog articstarcreativity was experiencing technical difficulties during the writing of this report.
