On a day when all eyeballs were on our nation's capital, many took pride in recognizing how our homegrown news coverage outshone our panicky, all-caps neighbours to the south.
Where some American news outlets reported inaccurate information in a sea of conflicting reports and rapidly-changing news, many observers hailed Canadian coverage - particularly that of the CBC's Peter Mansbridge - as calm, cautious and correct. Canadian coverage showed how to cover breaking news like "sensible adults," as Mother Jones wrote.
There was one incident, though, one tiny exception that ended with CNN's Anderson Cooper schooling a Canadian journalist on respect.
Sun News contributor Vandon Gene was denied a photo by the CNN reporter, in Ottawa reporting on the day's tragic events.
"No, I will not take a photo with you on a day where someone was killed. It seems wildly inappropriate," says Cooper.
"Wow, thanks a lot Anderson," was Gene's sarcastic response, as seen in a video that captured the incident.
He then took to Twitter to vent his anger and accuse Cooper of "exploiting this tragedy by flying to Ottawa from NYC."
Cooper responded with a lesson in class:
.@vandongene dude, you were rude and asking for a selfie near where a soldier was killed. It was completely inappropriate. Think about it
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) October 23, 2014.@vandongene I can't believe any station employs you, and if you want to be a journalist, learn how to behave when covering a story
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) October 23, 2014After all of Twitter agreed with the CNN correspondent, Gene apologized, "unreservedly", albeit all too late.
Again, I unreservedly apologize for my actions yesterday. It was completely inappropriate, disrespectful, and distasteful. @andersoncooper
— Vandon Gene (@vandongene) October 23, 2014Update: Sun News has addressed the gaffe:
RT @mw_wolf: FYI: @vandongene no longer has any association with @SunNewsNetwork. Now time to focus on the bigger issues @andersoncooper
— Sun News Network (@SunNewsNetwork) October 23, 2014RT @mw_wolf: On behalf of @SunNewsNetwork, apologies to @andersoncooper for @vandongene's behavior. The issue will be addressed.
— Sun News Network (@SunNewsNetwork) October 23, 2014