There is saying things in few words and then there is adding a bit of interpretation to the few words that the end result doesn't quite match a little thing called reality.
VOCM is at it again this morning, reporting on the postponement of the NROL-16 launch at Canaveral.
"The U-S has postponed this week's planned launch of a Titan rocket. A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan says the Americans have delayed Wednesday's launch until April 17th. In the meantime talks will continue to allay Canadian concerns that East Coast oil rigs could be damaged by falling pieces of space junk, but McLellan is showing little concern. In the meantime talks will continue to allay Canadian concerns."
Ok.
Look at those last two sentences and break them out.
Talks will still go on, according to VOCM in order to "allay Canadian concerns" although if you read a little bit further, the federal cabinet minister responsible for being concerned about these sorts of things (i.e. the Government of Canada) "is showing little concern".
Two things, aside from the excessive use of the word "concern" and the phrase "talks will continue" in such a short space:
1. The meeting in Halifax was designed to address specific issues among the people with assets supposedly at risk (namely the operators of the platforms) and to deal with Danny William's issues primarily for their noisy political impact. That is noise as in devoid of signal. This hardly constitutes "Canadian" concerns as if the whole country was headed for the border to invade if the rocket tries to leave Florida. That phrase actually looks close to some official American approaches - namely that they are addressing "Canadian" concerns, because They don't distinguish among Canadians like Canadians do.
2. McLellan showing little concern would be a misleading intepretation. She has said - and rightly so - that the chances of this rocket hitting the platforms is almost non-existant. As in "will never happen".
VOCM's version implicitly criticizes McLellan for not being as enraged as Danny Williams; that's where I get a problem. Now while we can quibble about other issues like the Accord, in this instance, Williams is increasingly floating into orbit himself without any justification.
That's because in a short space of time Williams went from being what we in the politicial business call "responsible" for raising concerns based on limited information to being what we in most of society call "hysterical" - as in give someone a Valium - for ignoring solid information in favour of rants.
The truth is out there. Danny just needs to accept it.
As for VOCM, that's two Dubious Interpretation Prizes they've garnered on just this one story.
I, for one, am getting concerned.
