More Much Ado About Nothing

That is how I view Rosie's concern about the media blackout on the CN Tower. Is there anyone who doesn't know that ice sheeting on the tower presented a safety hazard and shutdown traffic? Is there anyone who doesn't know that this is the first time this sheeting problem has occurred since the tower was built? Some people, when they take a break from their obsession with the Pickton trial, might be interested in why it happened and how it can be prevented but I am not one of them. Eventually "a reporter" will write a story about these issues.

High-wire act low comedy
Gag on CN Tower operation just silly
March 10, 2007
Rosie DiManno

You know that expression about watching paint dry? A barrel of monkeys compared to watching ice melt.

It was in intrepid investigative reporter mode, trench coat nattily belted, that we ventured up the CN Tower yesterday, looking for evidence of the hush-hush operations to scrape risky rime from the 1,815-foot Toronto landmark, recently transformed into the world's tallest free-standing Popsicle.

Earlier in the week, under cover of darkness, ninja high-angle specialists hacked and thwacked at the ice clinging to the tower's contours after rappelling down its steep sides.

The city snoozed through it all. No evidence of the covert mission exists, the undertaking as sheathed in mystery as the tower has been in frazil, a cowl of sleet. Why all the mystery is ... a mystery.

There was a time, under former management, when the CN Tower was a friendly environment for journalists, ex-supremo David Garrick a garrulous champion of the structure that touts itself as a "World Wonder''. He understood instinctively that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

And a vertical expedition to crack the tower's chilled cocoon – an icy condom for the planet's most iconic phallic symbol – would have been a marvelous story to tell, had it been recorded for posterity; had, even, the death-defying exploits of the climbers been imparted to the media after the fact, first-hand.

But current chief operating officer Jack Robinson could not be coaxed out of his subterranean lair for an interview when the Star called yesterday. And the daredevil professionals who executed the mission – I'm thinking they're macho hunks – remain, like the tower itself, under a gag order, via confidentiality agreements.

The spindly structure's architect was also, apparently, prevented from giving a radio interview when the clam-up edict descended.

The tower has morphed into a no-tell motel.

"I don't understand the interest,'' remonstrated the PR lady who, apparently, doesn't understand the raison d'etre of public relations either. "(Robinson) gave an interview to the Star yesterday. What more is there to say?''

Oh, I don't know, maybe why it's suddenly necessary for tower administrators to plead the fifth and micromanage the news coverage.

More