Yesterday morning's Metro Morning broadcast seemed unusually full of cell phone stories. Matt and the Metro Morning info specialists seemed to have a limitless supply of anecdotes and stories, including texting each other soccer scores and restaurant cell phone etiquette. Matt reported back that the show's Facebook and Twitter accounts were filled to overflowing with learned commentary from listeners on Matt's cell-phone-stack-restaurant-bill-payer-idea. Jill's laughter and Scott's gravitas helped make this a pleasant, morning-starter of a show that could have done any of our city's private broadcasters proud; Wally Crouter would have felt right at home.
The upbeat mood was threatened by a somewhat more serious cell phone story, provided to all local media by Constable Wendy Drummond of our city's police services. It focused on the ghastly problem of accidental “pocket dials,” which apparently cascade into our city's 911 service at an alarming rate. Ms. Drummond warned that every accidentally dialled 911 call had to be tracked down and investigated. She spoke of the possibility of a senseless tragedy caused when staff attending to accidental calls were not available for real emergencies. Fortunately, Matt was able to curb his baser journalistic instincts during his interview with Constable Drummond. He did not ask whether 911 staff assigned to the pocket-dial detail might have been able to provide Mayor Rob Ford with a more timely response to the Mayor's non-pocket-dialled 911 pleas for help during the Princess Warrior crisis. Nor did Matt ask any impertinent questions about why the Toronto Police Service had decided to roll this story out at this particular time.
Within the last 11 days, three separate 911 calls brought Toronto police to three emergency situations. The outcomes involved two troubled people hurtling to their deaths from an apartment balcony and a bridge; another fell from an apartment rooftop sustaining life-threatening injuries. Three separate SIU investigations are currently underway (1, 2, 3). Again Matt was able to avoid old-fashioned CBC news techniques and keep the mood light and merry; he did not ask whether the police might be trying to divert our attention away from the SIU investigations and back to the goofy things Torontonians do with their cell phones. If that was what Constable Drummond was trying to do, she could not have hoped for a more congenial news environment for her presentation. Yesterday at Metro Morning it was wall-to-wall goofy cell phone stories. This is precisely the kind of positive thinking with a light-hearted touch that Toronto needs right now. Thank you for keeping our spirits up.
No comments:
Post a Comment