Chasing the Story

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

Mike McCardell’s metamorphosis from hard-nosed New York Daily News
crime reporter to soft news reporting on the nightly BCTV news, in
Vancouver, is a remarkable tale.

From his early days as the “latchkey kid” of a single parent
through his military training in the U.S. Air Force, shortly after the
Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s, McCardell’s life reads like
fiction. During the Cold War, he spent two years in Germany as a
teenager while his mother worked there for Radio Free Europe. He
explored the horrific remains of the Dachau concentration camp. “I do
not know what happened,” he relates following the experience, “but
no feeling, no sight, no thought has ever been the same.”

As a police reporter, McCardell dodged bullets in the line of duty,
covered prison riots, and wrote “endless series on drugs and drug
dealing.” Weary of the crime scene and the underbelly of New York
society, he moved to Vancouver, worked for the Vancouver Sun, and
eventually found his niche at BCTV news. His adventures reporting on
“soft” news are, in many instances, as exciting, relevant, and
meaningful as those associated with the hard news of his past. And his
insights into the workings of the media in general are as interesting as
his reporting. More than an extraordinary tale of a particular
reporter’s life, this is an excellent guide to the job requirements a
reporter must fulfil.