
I have long been concerned about the state of marine journalism, particularly in North America. In my view, most all marine magazines have for decades been little more than extensions of the marketing departments of boat builders and marine gear manufacturers.
Heck, it’s been about 20 years since one of my favourite editors, and marine writers, got fired for refusing to “sell the cover1” and other offences against the publisher (also know as journalism ethics) on one of the leading boating magazines.
And don’t get me started on what a crock most of the so-called boat review videos being produced on both sides of the Atlantic are.
But there is one shining exception, a guy named Peter Swanson who writes at Substack under the banner of “Loose Cannon“.
Not only is Peter a real journalist with decades of experience, he loves shining the light of day on bad behaviour and clearly does not give a shit who he offends—a loose cannon indeed.
Examples since I have been reading Peter’s posts include:
- Working with several experts to figure out why the superyacht Bayesian was knocked down and sunk with loss of life, and in the process hopefully preventing the builder from hanging the blame on the skipper and crew.
- Calling out Sail Magazine for a serious omission of vital information when writing a “boat review”.
- Explaining the recent further consolidation of boating magazines—I don’t agree with all of this one2, but it’s interesting to read Peter’s view.
And much more that’s interesting and relevant.
You can read most of Peter’s stuff for free, although accessing the archived posts like those above requires paying $56 / year. Hum, more expensive than AAC…he thinks.
Anyway, I just paid, and I highly recommend supporting Peter so at least there is one authentic marine journalist left in the wilderness.
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Do you know of any others? If so, leave a comment.