Something Worth Reading: A news magazine to fill a void

'A humble attempt to access truths, tell difficult stories, give voice to vulnerable people, and to call out bad actors, evildoers, corrupt organizations and anachronistic institutions'

I'm Paul J. Henderson. This is my new website where I share a window into the what's happening. From local, provincial and beyond, using traditional news gathering with insight and analysis, this will be something a little like you've seen before from me, but a lot different from what you'll see elsewhere.

This is my humble attempt to access truths, to tell difficult stories, to give voice to vulnerable people, and to candidly call out bad actors, evildoers, corrupt organizations, anachronistic institutions.

My approach to the "news," is that it doesn't always need to be new. It's telling people something they didn't already know. Sometimes that means telling people what they didn't know they didn't know or didn't know they should know.

A lot of important subjects are being overlooked in 2025 – some intentionally, some for practical reasons – locally where I live in British Columbia, across the province, nationally and around the world.

My primary focus for the last 15 years is the criminal justice system. Too few people understand the function of our police bodies and other agencies enforcing various laws, the four levels of court in Canada, and the highly opaque prison system.

I have a secondary eye on human interest stories and culture, and the important organizations that dominate our lives: government bodies, academia, religious institutions, the media. Also food. I'll be writing about food, too.

And it'll all be a little bit gonzo.

Bumpf begone

Have you noticed a certain milquetoast mediocrity infecting journalism in your community? 

Are you left wondering “what the hell is happening?” or “why the heck is this being ignored?” or “whatever happened to?” I know some of you have because after just two months reporting in a way I never have before (with zero promotion), I’ve had more feedback with praise, scorn, questions, advice, news tips than I had in a full year working at the local community newspaper distributed to nearly 30,000 homes.

There is a gaping hole in our knowledge economy. Newspapers are consolidating. Reporters are losing work. Our media landscape is flaccid leaving the few hapless community outlets around to rewrite news releases, share bumpf, ignore what’s important, scared to ask questions, terrified of upsetting advertisers and the lowest common denominator of Karens and Kevins are sucking the life out of our world.

Obviously I can’t fill the gap created as the mainstream media retreats away from controversy and honesty like Homer Simpson sliding backwards into a cedar hedge. What I will try to do is my small part to be honest, tell those truths and hold people to account. Sadly the absence is so great that it’s like throwing a hot dog down a hallway. The bad news is that what is missing in the honest media landscape is shocking. The good news it'll be easy to do something, and anything is better than what we are left with today.

Join me here at Something Worth Reading. You’ll get exclusive content about criminal justice, the courts and human interest features that no other outlet is reporting on. You’ll find out about what you need to know from a different point of view, sometimes from 30,000 feet, sometimes from the thick of it on the streets. 

Subscribe to Project 2025

Kidding, but I launched here on Dec. 31, 2024 with the help of my web expert friend Kristoffer, photographs from the brilliant Greg Laychak, and assistance from others. So far what is here is a few dozen recent stories and some of my favourite opinion pieces. I am also slowly sharing rewritten and update versions of some of my more compelling stories over the last 20 years, including crime and human interest, politics, real estate and whatever else sparked my interest and held my attention.

This is whatever I want it to be. I will respond to readers and whoever else has something worth listening to, worth responding to, worth writing about. And if I'm not writing something worth reading, hopefully I'll be doing something worth writing about.

Please subscribe and soon I'll be getting an occasional newsletter set up.

Get in touch:
pauljhenderson@gmail.com
facebook.com/PaulJHendersonJournalist
instagram.com/wordsarehard_pjh
x.com/PeeJayAitch
wordsarehard-pjh.bsky.social

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