News stories should stick to facts

Re ‘Vision Zero’ a distant goal after another deadly year on city’s streets,

Dec. 26 I read this story to learn more about pedestrian deaths in Toronto. Instead, I came away having learned little, but with the uneasy feeling that this story was designed to manipulate me, the reader, into blindly supporting a potpourri of programs to “protect” pedestrians while impeding motor vehicles.

The first story was about a man hit by a taxi in the middle of the road as he and his buddies were crossing the road to get into an Uber car. We learned about his traumatic brain injury and the immense feeling of loss by his partner. And then more of his personal biography. And that was it. Who had done what? Was it clear and dry or dark and wet? What had the buddies been doing? Were charges laid? All the elements of the story were designed to get the reader emotionally involved in this tragedy, without benefit of any information which might give context or even be mitigating. Other tragic stories followed, all, again, without context.

The article was presented on the front page as a straight-up news item; there were no sub or super-headings about being an opinion piece. This story, as presented, did not meet the criteria for news reporting, the famous 5 Ws.

There are many ways to die by accident, such as falling in the home, being struck by a vehicle on the road, choking on food etc. Life is not safe, even though we might like it to be. The question is how much we can reasonably do to make life safer. This story lacks the information for me, the reader, to make a reasonable judgment. News reporting needs to be better than this example. David Kister, Toronto