Michael Shaughnessy was a reporter for Common Sense. He and his partner Jerry Doyle approached Thomas Bushell at the Ribblesdale House in Charleroi, for the purpose of asking infuriating questions. Bushell said that Shaughnessy was a bald eagle, referring to both the Independence Party's insignia and Shaughnessy's own receding hairline. Shaughnessy taunted Captain Samuel Stanley with a racialist slur as "Sam the spade". Stanley refused to respond. Doyle and Shaughnessy later encountered Bushell at other locales in Charleroi, with no better results. They also had an encounter in Boston, Common Sense's home town.