Media storm - drunkenness, megadeals & online privacy

I had a pretty good media week this week, with my name popping up in all sorts of fun places. Notably, I got my hideous mug on television a few times, including the following interviews on Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart's release of new guidelines to ensure online advertisers play nice with our private information:

• CBC News Network. Spoke to Reshmi Nair. Video here. And here.
  
• CTV's Canada AM. I chatted with Scott Laurie. Video here. I also spoke with CTV News Channel's Jacqueline Milczarek just after that, but I couldn't find the video online.
  
• The Toronto Star. Privacy online (byline Francine Kopun)
  

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion had a lousy week, too, as two high-ranking employees got drunk on an Air Canada plane and forced it to land in Vancouver. The over-300 passengers on board were put up in hotels and forced to endure an 18-hour delay before continuing their flight to Beijing. The now-ex-employees were subsequently fined $72,000 by the airline. Then a BlackBerry promotion in Indonesia turned into a stampede. Then I talked to Canada's leading wire service about how all this stuff hurts the brand:

• Canadian Press. BlackBerry maker's image could take a hit after stampede and airplane ruckus (Global Toronto, Winnipeg Free Press, Yahoo! Canada, Hamilton Specator, Brandon Sun, et al.)
• Globe & Mail. Will drunken RIM employees affect BlackBerry sales? (byline Zosia Bielski)

Other notable hits from the Toronto Star this week include:

• New Apple iPhones and iPads turn out to be data hogs. (byline John Terauds)
• Bell, Rogers bank on making money every step of the way (byline Vanessa Lu)
  
• Teachers cashing in at the peak. (byline John Spears)

The last two stories dealt with the purchase of the majority of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. (the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, the Air Canada Centre, among others) in a groundbreaking telecom convergence move. I published the following two pieces on Yahoo! Canada to try to make sense of the deal:

• Teachers' MLSE Sale Perfectly Timed
• Left Out of MLSE Deal, Is Telus the Last Telecom Standing?

To say this is fun would be something of an understatement. To say I don't feel privileged would be a lie: Every time the phone rings, the red light goes on or I click Send to an editor, I pinch myself that things are evolving as they are. May it be so for us all.

Your turn: What's your dream?