David Baines recently retired from the Vancouver Sun.  He will be missed.  He was prepared to cover stories that others were not.  He notes “I learned that it takes money, not just to publish stories, but also to defend them. I am fortunate to have worked for a newspaper that has the means and mindset to do both, and to have had great libel lawyers … to guide me through this jungle.  It also takes guts to supervise this sort of reportage. Any editor who approves a contentious story has to be a strong and confident person. Lawsuits, if they do not go well, can break careers. I am fortunate to have had fearless editors over the years, most notably our erstwhile editor-in-chief, Patricia Graham.”

Here is his farewell column: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/David+Baines+bids+farewell+readers/8564879/story.html#ixzz2XNKRKyQ1

I like one of his concluding thoughts: “My enduring gratitude to my 101-year-old father, Fred Baines, who has always dismissed the concept of “moral ambiguity” as an intellectual construct: “Either you’re honest or you’re not,” he says”