I'm fortunate to have worked with great editors and reporters, and to have received international recognition for my journalism and books.
I received a George Polk Award for a series of stories with Ryan Mac that revealed "how Facebook exposes the public to disinformation, fraud and violence." My work exposing a global Facebook scam was named investigation of the year by the Canadian Association of Journalists.
I was also named to the Politico 50 for my work exposing fake news and its effect on American politics, and received the Carey McWilliams Award from the American Political Science Association, which honors “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” I've been honored by the U.S. National Press Club, Mirror Awards, National Magazine Awards (Canada), and Canadian Digital Publishing Awards.
See below for links to some of my award-winning work.
Investigating Facebook
These articles were part of a package that received the Polk Award.
These stories won the MacGillivray Award for investigation of the year from the Canadian Association of Journalists.
Revealing Fake News, Online Misinformation, Media Manipulation
A package of these articles was named a finalist for the John M. Higgins Award For Best In Depth/Enterprise Reporting about the media industry.
Investigating Hyperpartisan Political Publishing
A package of these stories won the Carey Williams Award from the American Political Science Association.
Exposing Digital Ad Fraud
A package of these articles was named a finalist for the John M. Higgins Award For Best In Depth/Enterprise Reporting about the media industry.
Other Award-Winning Work
I won the Silver Medal in Investigative Reporting at the 2020 Canadian National Magazine Awards for a story about shady online reputation management consultants.
I received Best Commentary, Digital Media in 2013 for my work on Regret the Error at Poynter. I was twice a finalist (2010, 2011) for Best Commentary, Digital Media for columns written for Columbia Journalism Review.
I won a Silver Medal at the 2011 National Magazine Awards in the Best Multimedia Feature category. This was for an audio slideshow I wrote and narrated for Report on Business Magazine. That same piece was a finalist for Best Video at the 2010 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. In 2009, I received a Silver Medal in the Humour category for an article in Maisonneuve magazine. I also shared a Gold Medal in the Service: Personal Finance & Business category at the 2008 National Magazine Awards. The award was for a package of articles published in Report on Business magazine.
My book, Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, won the 2008 Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism (book) from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
My book, Mafiaboy: How I Cracked The Internet and Why It’s Still Broken, won the award for Canadian non-fiction crime book of the year at the Arthur Ellis Awards in 2009. The awards are given by the Crime Writers of Canada.