The infallible media and other fallacies

Even in my fuzzy sick state, I am obsessed with absorbing every minute detail about the big news of the day -- the shooting at Dawson College in the heart of Montreal.

It's horrific and unimaginable and I have to admit that when I first saw an alert on the wires, I wondered if it was even true.

But it is confirmed. Police shot dead one gunman after he critically wounded at least eight people and injured up to a dozen more.

It was frustrating to watch the media struggle over the span of three hours to figure out the true numbers of gunmen, injured, dead. But what was even more frustrating was listening over the hours to the various reporters just within my organization reporting different numbers.

Right before the radio reporter did her on-air question-and-answer, the host said the suspected gunman was in his teens. The reporter then said he was from 20 to 30 years old.

Even as radio was about to go on-air to report one gunman, online was reporting two gunmen dead with a possible third gunman on the loose.

Surely, there must be a way to get this right across the board.

But alas this is the price people pay for wanting immediate news -- sometimes it's just rumour being reported until fact is confirmed.

So, our audience watches us stumble through the process of figuring out the truth. Sometimes it can be amusing.

Two hours into the shooting story, the anchor cut away to a news conference apparently being held by police, but it seems she got the time wrong. All we saw was a gaggle of investigators laughing and joking and shooting the shit. Ouch. Inappropriate, to say the least.

In the end, perhaps the general public doesn't even care about all these little mistakes. But I will admit that it drives me batty, even when my head is foggy with cold-battling drugs.