I was a student in Montreal in the late 90s, and was on to Vice before it was cool, when it was just a free alt-weekly punk-ass print rag. It was from outer space. I read it religiously.

The do's and don'ts to this day inform my acerbic wit aspirations.

Really? Because their dispatches from Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, etc are all pretty great. Isobel Yeung, Hind Hassan, Michael C. Moynihan, Simon Ostrovsky, are all pretty solid. There are some corespondents and hosts that are horribly bad, but Vice has some huge talent....which makes BuzzFeed News (not to be confused with BuzzFeed) look like NowThis. Vice (not Vice News) is horrible though, Vice News is the jewel of that org. It's when they do things that aren't from their dispatches that they really struggle. Their commentary on Vice on HBO is often cringe inducing.

Isobel, Hind, and Antonia are the best reporters they have and their coverage of the Charlottesville rally was pretty jaw dropping.

second for the north korea documentary on youtube. in my opinion it's still one of the best, even so many years later, at showing what lengths they go to in building the facade for tourists and the rest of the world.

sidebar: i still feel bad about that poor tea girl.

agreed. in my mind, the last really good piece they had was when they sent simon ostrovsky to the war in ukraine.

the quality went downhill and i've stopped following them a few years ago. but back in the day, they were excellent as far as gonzo journalism goes.