Saint John — The Frank Gehry-designed newsroom at Country 94 in Saint John received some sour news of its own this morning. Editor-in-chief Sam Harden was given the chore of making the announcement at a press conference.
“Saint John, Canada and Planet Earth as a whole will lose one of the most important institutions of free speech today,” he said sadly. Harden was flanked by his Metro editor and columnist Malcolm Gladwell, who were both in tears. “All of our foreign bureaus, including the highly decorated Paris desk will be shuttered by end of day.”
Harden explained that Country 94 will continue sharing local interest stories on social media, giving away Papa John’s pizzas and playing country music on FM radio.
Edward Snowden, who chose Country 94 along with The Guardian, Der Spiegal and The New York Times to leak documents to exposing the domestic spying practices of the NSA, aired his grievances on Twitter: “RIP Truth :‘(”
The now defunct news team is expected to be a shoo-in for a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for their investigative work breaking the Mossack Fonseca story, commonly referred to as the “Panama Papers” story. The same team won this year for sharing a meme showing a cabin in the Andes with the accompanying text: “Would you live here for a year without Internet for $1,000,000?”
Bob Woodward, currently associate editor at the Washington Post, also lamented the closure on Twitter: “I’ve tried repeatedly to land a job at Country 94… my resumé was never strong enough.” In a following tweet, Woodward retweeted a Country 94 post for a chance to win a free dinner for two at Papa John’s at either the Plaza Street or McAllister Drive location.