Sunday, December 04, 2005

Tone deaf

The wind must be howling around the office of Pulse 24 in Toronto, because no one, apparently, can hear how tone deaf the lede on this story is:

Hockey and cold beer are staples in Canada.

But the two came together in a terrible and tragic way in the middle of a snowstorm Friday, as a truck carrying a load of suds collided with a chartered bus in the middle of a snow storm, leaving the transport overturned and 11 young hockey players hurt.

It happened on Highway 401 near Ingersoll, between London and Woodstock.

At least one of the youngsters is in hospital with life threatening injuries. “We had one victim trapped in the back of the bus and extricated him, his leg was trapped underneath the seat,” reveals local fire department spokesman Brad Coventry, who aided rescuers at the scene
An extra touch is that attribution "reveals."

I don't care how hip, cool, daring or whatever you are. When you've got a kid in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from a terrible crash, play it straight. No "suds." No forcing relationships that aren't there (so had it been a septic tank truck instead, we can only imagine what the Pulse 24 geniuses would have tried). It was a coincidence, nothing else, that brought the bus and the beer truck together.

A good reason to step back from the computer and, instead of hitting the "send" button, hit the "try again" one instead.

(Thanks to one of my students for pointing out this newest candidate for the Hall of Shame.)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home