On Friday morning when we aired tape of some stranded Jetsgo passengers who were "pissed off" and wished Jetsgo management had the "balls" to show their faces, it made some of us back in mission control a little bit nervous. It was also in the way the tape was used, which is too difficult to explain here without delivering a crash course in reporting and our format. Pissed and balls are legitimate reactions but they seemed a little bit much for morning radio on our station. "Daddy, what does that man mean by pissed? And what do balls have to do with it??"
It was "pissed" that made me uncomfortable. Our editor wasn't happy about "balls". So we had the discussion with our grand poo-bah after the show who admitted that on a normal day, those phrases would not be acceptable on our station. But this was not a normal day, people's travel plans were being ruined and there was no one around to say "I'm sorry." They were pissed. They wished Jetsgo had balls. We let them have their say. Fair enough.
This is the kind of discussion that goes on in the newsroom every day, not just about potentially offensive language, but about what to call a man who sets himself on fire at Queen's Park, as an example. (Mississauga man? Vietnamese immigrant? Parole violator? All true - which should we go with?) When you work the way that we do, in a huge team on the same show, you need to make sure everyone is working from the same playbook. Everyone also has to be able to feel free to give their opinion, even if it may go directly against the rest of the group. This is how we grow, learn, develop, and attract the most radio listeners in the city.