Okay, that was a little glib. I totally agree that the chopper is just a tool and a potentially valuable one. My argument isn’t with the whirlybird; it’s with the uses to which it is put and how it has, in my view, skewed the news judgment of the station.

If CTV had a microwave truck in the area when the explosion happened, do you not think they would have gone live with footage of the air ambulance landing?

And do you not think the reporter would be doing the same kind of speculating about the events unfolding live until fire/police officials could say more?

The reality is that even a minor story can turn into a more major piece when stations capture the action live and believe they’re the only ones with it. It doesn’t take a helicopter to do that.

While there will always be some gimicky uses of choppers, for the most part, they give the viewer a perspective on the news they wouldn’t otherwise see. Just think about flooding and other storm damage from tsunamis, huricanes, and tornados, or even last year’s mud slide in North Vancouver – how different would our perspective on those events be without news choppers?

Perhaps it’s time for Mark Hamilton to get ride of the photo of him glad in a photo vest and post one him in his tweed jacket with elbow patches because he’s clearly more of a academic than a journalist these days.