Back on December 30th, we passed on some disturbing news about a TTC bus that was hijacked at gunpoint and taken on a joy ride in the downtown core. Three weeks later, we're learning that this didn't actually happen. In my opinion, this raises some serious concerns.

In particular, I'm worried that a TTC employee fabricated a story and may have put a serious mark on the credibility of the TTC as it relates to the employee safety issue (which has been a huge factor in union unrest, illegal strikes, funding allocation, etc). What might result? Does this add fuel to the fire and justify questioning the word of TTC employee safety advocates? Are all of these alleged statistics on abuses against employees also fabricated or embellished?

My Sunday web hop brought me to the breaking news via Torontoist, where we're having a healthy debate about the mainstream media's role in propagating the story and creating a unjust fear. Check it out.

(photo: theGentries Flickr pooler See You, Jimmy!)