little bitty girl

Sometimes I feel that CNN is low on stories or they can't seem to quantify the ones they have that they need to exaggerate facts. On Boxing Day, Toronto experienced a shooting tragedy that left a 15 year old dead and 6 others injured. It has been an incident that has shocked a city, not used to violence.

Then to make matters worse, CNN's Miles O'Brien makes this really outrageous statement, warning people not to come to Toronto because there is crime spree and our murders have doubled. We're at 58 murders for the year. Isn't that the weekly rate in LA and NY?

I am not saying that it's a good thing that we're so low in comparison. Murder is murder and a terrible thing. However, we should put all things into perspective, taking into consideration that we are the largest populated city in all of Canada. With a larger population, disproportionate distributions of wealth, cutbacks in social programs, all problem that larger cities face, violence is not wholly unexpected.

We're trying to figure out what went wrong with our city and it never helps when newscasters are misinformed or want to sensationalize issues. I feel like it's like the whole SARS problem again where CNN claimed every single person in Toronto was wearing masks. I never saw a single person in the city wearing a mask other than the people who worked in hospitals.

It's actually upsetting because CNN used to be one of my favourite sources for the news but having twice been the focus of extreme sensationalism, I think I choose to be more educated and find my sources somewhere else. One wonders what else they exaggerate. Watching CNN is starting to feel like watching one of those entertainment shows. All pizazz and no substance.