- A series of investigative stories McNair wrote for The Hook on the suicide of Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey attracted national news coverage [ABCNews, NBC Today Show, LA Times, New York Times], led to a national discussion about workplace bullying, and prompted the University of Virginia to launch an initiative to address the issue.
- McNair investigated what was behind a faulty, $2-million software package that was purchased by the Albemarle County School system, and his investigations into the local trash and recycling business was recognized by the Virginia Press Association as “truly a public service to your readers.”
- With his colleagues at The Hook, McNair shared the Virginia Press Association’s highest honor, the Award for Journalistic Integrity & Public Service, for his coverage of the attempted ouster of then UVA President Teresa Sullivan.
- For TakePart.com, McNair examined the legacy of sexual assault at UVA, interviewed a young activist in Pakistan trying to end the practice of child marriages, wrote about an animal rights journalist being targeted by the FBI, and covered developments in technology and social justice across Africa.
- For The DTM, McNair’s coverage of two Black men wrongly accused of committing a random “knockout attack” on a white couple on the Downtown Mall (Gawker), as well as his coverage and analysis of the KKK and Unite the Right rallies in August 2017, prompted this from the executive editor of Fast Company Magazine: “good stuff from what seems to be the best news source in Charlottesville.”
- Story McNair wrote about rock star Dave Matthews and the tragic suicide of a local musician.
- McNair’s fiction has also appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and other literary journals. In 2021, I was the runner-up in the Sewanee Review’s annual fiction contest.
Most read
- Police vs. Civilians: What will it take to establish an effective Police Civilian Review Board?
- A Mental Maze: what we can learn from Tarron Richardson’s brief time as city manager
- Why Charlottesville? How a Facebook comment, an unknown blogger, and some old tweets inflamed a debate about race and monuments
- Forget the ‘Rolling Stone’ Debacle: At UVA, 38 Reports of Sexual Violence, 0 Expulsions Last Year
- Tale of Woe: The death of the VQR’s Kevin Morrissey
- Feature on rocker Dave Matthews
- Little Washington, big taste: A Central Virginia high-wire act
- Just say know: Tim Wilson wants to change the world– one story at a time
- Glitchy system: Inside the student software debacle
- Celebrity Culture in America
- Knock, knock: men involved in Mall “beating” tell their side of the story
- A Journalist Is Exposing How the FBI Targets Animal Activists as ‘Terrorists’
- Send Girls Off to Learn, Not Off to Marry, Says 13-Year-Old Pakistani Activist
- Generation Us: Retreads prove you’re never too old to love to play ball
- India Launches Its First Public Toilet-to-Tap Water Project
Collections
David McNair 
Pingback: Talkin’ trash on the Schilling Show « David McNair