I saw a news report on a local TV station over the weekend about L.A. school bus drivers caught using their cell phones while transporting students. The report had a "gotcha" quality to it, with the reporter confronting the drivers as they got off the bus. This wasn't the worst piece of TV journalism that I've seen, but it did make a point -- bus drivers are violating California law by using cell phones while driving a school bus.

Exceptions to this law, enacted in 2005, allow for the use of cell phones in an emergency and for work-related calls. We should give these drivers the benefit of the doubt and assume they were using their phones for work purposes. But, human nature being what it is, I'm guessing that other bus drivers are using their cell phones illegally.

Which is a problem. Not only is it against the law in California (and several other states), it's also extremely dangerous. The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on a crash that was apparently caused by a motorcoach driver who crashed into a bridge overpass because he was distracted by a hands-free, cell-phone conversation. Several students were injured, one seriously.

So much of the focus of TV news is negative these days that it's often dispiriting to watch regularly. But I think we've got to do a better job of policing ourselves and reducing the chances that a TV camera is capturing videotape of prohibited activities. Then we won't have the gotcha moment that so many so-called journalists confuse with real reporting.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Keep it safe.

Steve