Christmas Eve is the loneliest night of the year in a newsroom. I can vouch for that – I worked several decades of them. It’s an eerie kind of quiet that settles in when the rest of the world virtually shuts down. There’s no one else around and there's no real lede – the Pope, the Queen and the Prime Minister’s messages aren’t exactly scintillating stuff.
 
But I’ll never forget one Dec. 24th that’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. It happened a few years ago when news came that an Ontario family on vacation had been wiped out on Xmas Eve in a terrible accident in awful weather in Pennsylvania. It was a sad story, but with nothing else going on, it went up on the front page of our website.
 
A few minutes later, my phone rang. It was an indignant viewer, absolutely beside himself. “Is this the idiot that put up that story about the family being killed?” he demanded.
 
“I put it up,” I admitted, not agreeing with the “idiot” label.
 
“Why did you do that?” he yelled. “That’s a terrible story to see at Christmas! You’ve ruined my holiday!”
 
I tried to explain it was the most important story of the night and belonged on the front page and that every other station was leading with it, as well. But to no avail. He continued to berate me for running it, and got more angry as he worked himself into a lather.
 
“What would you like us to lead with?” I asked him. “The fact that it’s Christmas? That’s not exactly news. It happens every year around this time!” He actually agreed that would have been a better story!
 
“Sir,” I finally interjected. “If you don’t want to see the news, why in the world are you looking at it on Christmas Eve?” I’ll never know the answer because at that point, he hung up.
 
I’ve never forgotten that incident but here’s my advice for that guy if he’s still around: Stay off the Internet if you don’t want to know what’s going on.
 
For all those toiling on this night and on the 25th, I hope you have a better day and night than I did that evening.

Because no news is good news.

Unless, of course, you’re working in a newsroom on Xmas Eve.