Thread by @althecat

In this 3rd Episode of #StoryofScoop I continue to discuss the early years 2000-2003. It was a news rich environment and our impecuniosity set us free.

TL/DR: Putin's election in 1999 was followed by the Dotcom Crash (pictured), GW Bush's Election, 9/11, then the Iraq War. /1

Back in those early days NZ's time zone provided @ScoopNZ with a competitive advantage. Our news always had the freshest time stamp. By the time we installed Google Analytics in 2010 this effect had ended - but our American audience was still pretty strong. /2

At the turn of the millennium there was no alt-right, alt-left or fake news. Just Independent News (hence our masthead) and anti-capitalism >>web.archive.org/web/2001103119… &o our great honour a large number of American dissidents submitted their Scoops to Scoop.co.nz. /3

This #StoryofScoop spotlights some highlights. It was a very busy time from 9/11 to the beginning of the Iraq War, and for Scoop it began with the collapse of Enron, months after 9/11 and soon a byword for Bush II corruption and sleaze. /4 search.scoop.co.nz/search?date_to…

In January 2002 we received an email from former Bush I Cabinet Undersecretary @TheSolariReport about Enron - a friendship and alliance followed. We published a series of articles about Enron's Finance Cmtte. chair Pug Winokur, ending his career scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0208… /5

In June 2002 Scoop.co.nz was the antipodean media partner for a Washington DC Press Club event with @CatherineFitts brother @Utunga and 9/11 victims questioning the official narrative around 9/11 scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0206…. [This was well before #911Truth] /6

The massive body of investigative work followed including books "The Terror Timeline" and films - and much of the early source material was published/inspired by the Unanswered Questions effort and Scoop's UQ Wire. See... scoop.co.nz/features/Unans… /7

The Enron story also led us to Investigative powerhouse @JasonLeopold - of Trump Tower Moscow Buzzfeed Fame. After his Enron work hit a @PaulKrugman speedbump we published his response >> scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0210… and following that, a decade of his work search.scoop.co.nz/search?q=jason… /8

In the northern hemisphere summer of 2002 the drums of war started sounding for war in Iraq. We chronicled this buildup through a combination of commentaries, reporting and source material
Part 1: scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0302…
Part 2. scoop.co.nz/features/count… /9

Then came the actual 2003 Iraq War. Our coverage of which was significantly different than that on CNN or for that matter TVNZ. We pursued the lies story till it became THE narrative. Scoop's curated coverage is here >> scoop.co.nz/features/iraqw… and runs till the end of 2006. /10

After the hot start of the war - I delivered a speech at St Andrew's On the Terrace on the subject of the role of the news media, both in the lead up to, and during the war. Full Text here >> scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0304… (A version was in the Pacific Journalism Review) /11

In July 2003 we published our biggest scoop ever. With U.S. based investigator Bev Harris, we posted the full Diebold Voting Machine source code repository & 2 stories:
1: Inside a Voting Machine scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307…
2: Bigger Than Watergate scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307… /12

After scientists at Johns Hopkins & Rice Universities examined the code, @paulkrugman of the @nytimes covered their paper and the hackability of U.S. Voting Machines was mainstreamed (not that anything has been done to fix them yet). nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opi… … /13

Like the Unanswered Questions Press Conference a year earlier - these publications led to a body of journalistic work which continues to to have an impact today. See USACOUP Full Coverage here scoop.co.nz/features/usaco… /14

Looking back at this part of the #StoryofScoop, now 23 years after the NewsRoom/Scoop adventure began, and as I turn 50, I strongly think it has all been well worth it. /15

In the next episode of #StoryOfScoop I will look at the good years 2004-2007 during which we very nearly made $1 million revenue and the Delloitte Fast 50, and tried, and failed to raise investment funds as the 2008 recession began to bite and the GFC loomed. /16

@threadreaderapp unroll