Hot off the presses, or something
Posted by gigantichound on 28 Apr 2007 at 08:43 pm | Tagged as: Current Events
What could be more obscure, or easily forgotten, than the Friday press release at 5:10 p.m.?
Well, that would be the one on Saturday evening. And what is being announced?
Oh, nothing important:
Plans for a provincial red-alert disaster information system were announced by the Ontario Commissioner of Emergency Management today.
The “Alert Ontario” system would be used in life-threatening situations for the public, including floods, tornadoes and health pandemics, Emergency Management commissioner Jay Hope said. It would be employed like the Amber Alert missing child system now in place, using broadcasts, road signs, email, text-messaging and lottery terminals to alert the public.
Well, at least there’ll be SOMETHING to put in the Sunday paper!
It’s been suggested that fast transmission of emergency-related information is one of the few practical real-world uses for Twitter.
Classic — though this looks more like a case of arbitrary bureaucratic inefficiency than an attempt to bury news — some misguided staffer deciding that the press release “had to go out” as soon as the commissioner had spoken wherever he was speaking, even if waiting until Monday would make more sense.