Thread by @JesseBrown

1. On today's show I talk about many recent attacks on Canadaland, all aiming to discredit us. But I don't talk about @MarkBourrie. I will do so now. canadalandshow.com/podcast/283-oh…

2. I've held off on engaging with Mark's many posts and sponsored tweets against us, for one reason: I suspected he was secretly working on behalf of someone else to discredit us. But I couldn't prove it, and I don't wink and nudge about something like that.

3. When @journojaren asked Mark if he was working for a 3rd party of any kind, he said "my posts speak for themselves". Not a forthright answer.

4. And in writing his first posts, filled with vitriol and accusations (and many errors), Mark didn't bother to ask us any questions. Not the behaviour of a journalist in good faith.

5. Paying money to sponsor his own tweets criticizing us – that was particularly suspicious. Who does that? Who paid for that?

6. And of course, Mark has a history with us. We ran a story that embarrassed him after he took money from Senator Mike Duffy, his friend, who he was also writing about. Mark was furious and threatened to sue. canadalandshow.com/duffy-senator-…

7. The content of that story also seemed relevant - Mark was secretly doing online "reputation" work for Duffy. Not a stretch to imagine he was doing more covert reputation work for somebody else.

8. Finally, the level of nastiness was hard to understand. He went after @journojaren by name, comparing him to Jayson Blair (NYTimes reporter who just made stuff up). Baseless libel. Mark refused to back it up. What was motivating this viciousness?

9. We had a growing list of reasons to suspect Mark was someone's agent. He wouldn't even deny it. But we had no proof. So I kept quiet.

10. SO why am I saying all of this now? Have I found evidence that Mark is in fact smearing us on behalf of somebody else?

11. Nope. What I have now is a firm, unambiguous denial from Mark: "I am working for myself. Period." And WE.org, the organization most of Mark's criticism has been in defence of, gave us a similarly unambiguous denial.

He is not their agent.

12. So, what IS @markbourrie's deal?

I don't know. He's a guy who used to be a Canadaland supporter, believe it or not. We sent him a t-shirt.

13. He and I have had words recently. Not all of them were harsh. He says I let him down. He says he thinks I sometimes do good work. He says he's not my enemy and that he even has affection for me.

14. I don't know what to think. I don't have much respect or time for his attacks on us. They are not accurate or fair. In not giving us a chance to defend himself, he broke a top-line rule...

15. ...In not disclosing his prior conflicts with us at the top of his posts, he broke another. In his ad hominem attack against our young reporter, Mark disgraced himself.

16. Here's something of minor consequence: I liked Mark. I liked his book about Harper & the press. I like that he talked candidly about Ottawa journalism. This matters little now.

17. Where does this leave us? I still can't claim to understand what motivates Mark. But he has finally asked me for comment. I will talk to him. If he wants to sit down and record a conversation (and if I can tape it too) he can ask me anything he wants.

18. But it'll have to wait until next week, @MarkBourrie. I'm on deadline.