Mike Marland, Bob Charest, Susan Dromey Heeter Say Happy 4th InDepthNH

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Nancy West photo

Bob Charest writes Why You Should Care NH. Susan Dromey Heeter writes Joyful Musings. Pictured at NH Business Review's BOB Awards last year.

Part IV Editor’s Note: InDepthNH.org is celebrating our fourth anniversary of reporting unbiased, online, nonprofit news. We will share our story all week long and answer any questions you might have. We are part of a national movement to save journalism and hope you will join us in NH. Tomorrow I will wrap it up.— Nancy West, founder

Mike Marland is pictured at his cartooning desk.

By MIKE MARLAND, InDepthNH.org

Happy 4th Anniversary InDepthNH.org

I am most grateful to my long-time friend Nancy West for inviting me to be a part of this journalism venture of hers!

As the New Hampshire newspaper business collapsed and the bottom line took over, my work became expendable to the publishers (not the editors) and out I went from a dozen newspapers.

I’m pleased to part of this group of quality, old-pro NH journalists and new voices. Without InDepthNH I would no longer be drawing editorial cartoons. Simple as that.

By BOB CHAREST, InDepthNH.org

I have known Nancy West for more than three decades. In that time, I have been an eyewitness to investigative journalism, as embodied by this woman who has been relentless in her search for truth.

That seems like such a trite statement. To understand why I support InDepthNH.org and serve on the board of directors of its parent organization, the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, I need to delve a little deeper into what it means to “search for truth” in the current atmosphere.

Imagine a place where every day, someone somewhere is coming up with a new excuse to keep you from doing your job. Someone doesn’t want you to know something, and that something is the public’s business. A public official slams the phone down in your ear.

A person who doesn’t like what you’ve reported calls you up and yells at you. Everyday, you see another newspaper going out of business, a friend being laid off, another public agency withholding something that used to be given willingly.

Sound like a dream job? Hardly. But that’s the atmosphere she’s working in, yet she does it willingly. She believes in the work, and I often wonder, If Nancy doesn’t do it, who will?

If you have Nancy on your trail trying to track something down, she can be relentless. She isn’t out to win friends and awards, even though she has quite a few of each. All I can say when I see the shrinking news scene in New Hampshire: Thank God we have Nancy West still at work.

By SUSAN DROMEY HEETER, Joyfulful Musings

InDepthNH.org is the nonprofit watchdog news website for which I write two columns: Joyful Musings and Decoding the Vibe

This month I muse joyfully on celebrating InDepthNH’s fourth anniversary, celebrating four years of promoting “vigorous, in-depth news coverage focused on government and public servants.”

I’m a fan of four. I’m the fourth child of six, was born on 4/4 and I currently live with a family of four.  Cuatro. Quatre. Vier. Ceathrar. 

I’ve been with InDepthNH.org’s  Founder, Nancy West, for four years and am honored to be a part of something so necessary, so vital, so important in this era of our own leader referring to the media as the “Enemy of the People.” 

Hugo Chavez, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin also used this refrain to combat criticisms, truths, solid reporting.  

And, wow. I get to a part of this organization that is promoting vigorous, in-depth news coverage. In New Hampshire. Here, the Granite State where among the beautiful beaches, the stunning mountains, the glorious foliage are things that well, some people would rather you not look: Northern Pass. Eversource. Secure Psychiatric Units. Vaping.

My own columns allow for observation; I’m grateful to provide insight into the  First in the Nation Presidential Candidates, grateful I can muse joyfully on life’s pleasures, sorrows and moments in Joyful Musings. I am honored to have deadlines with InDepthNH.org and so many wonderful readers.

Truly. I teach Spanish and French to high school cherubs during the day, at night I write. I write. I write. I observe.

InDepthNH.org is a remarkable place with stunningly remarkable and talented journalists.  I am deeply honored to be a part.

And if you are reading this to this end of this Joyful Muse?  Know that four is just the beginning. Four more years can sound horrendous in some venues. Here at InDepthNH.org? Oh, we’re just getting started. Come along.

Contribute to the amazing work being done on your behalf.  Four Seasons. Route 4. The Fab Four. Four you. 
Thank you.

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