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Re: [climbsomething] In memoriam: TO READ, PLEASE REGISTER!!!:
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sangiro
Dec 7, 2006, 3:01 PM
Views: 5291
Registered: Jul 8, 2003
Posts: 304
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climbsomething wrote: While I ultimately appreciate your reasoning, I think this is a pretty silly assumption and an insult to responsible media- which is actually the vast majority. If you could supply me with one or two or three examples of a reporter at the Podunk Daily Star quoting an rc.com accident thread out of context, I'd stand corrected (and actually be quite peeved at my brethren for doing such a thing). Did you have a nasty experience like this over on DZ?
Hillary,
Like Reno I too think it's great that you're standing up for your profession. Unfortunately your claims above are simply not a reflection of reality at all. While we will reach out to anyone who makes a bona fide attempt to find the facts and report on an incident, our responsibility on this site is first and foremost to the climbing community and the families of those involved, not to the media.
On Dropzone.com, due to the nature of our sport, it is not uncommon to say "good bye" to a friend every weekend. Our experience with the media for more than ten years has shown us that while there are responsible journalists like those at the Podunk Daily Star out there, they are unfortunately outnumbered by those looking to put a body to a story with a headline like:
"Skydiver plummets to death in front of family"
"Skydivers living in fear for the killer in their midst"
"Father of 3 dies in final death leap."
We have many examples of this. I did a quick search in the DZ.com fatalities forum and unfortunately (fortunately?) most newspaper articles seem to expire or get archived after a while so there are many broken links. By that time that happens, the damage is done. Below are a few threads for you to take a look at. Even a poor researcher with a little more available time than I have, will find a myriad of other examples. If anything, they show that the media do in fact use message boards as "sources" for their stories. How they end up positioning the actual content is anyone's guess. Have a look:
http://www.dropzone.com/...i?post=564863#564863
http://www.dropzone.com/...post=1859701#1859701
http://www.dropzone.com/...post=1608523#1608523
... look at this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/...2.html?page=fullpage
It is basically a cut and paste of this post:
http://www.dropzone.com/...rum.cgi?post=2446044
Believe me there was no communication between that poster and the media. I know her personally and I had to deal with the fall-out from this.
Due to the fact that we deal with so many fatal incidents and because the true facts are often compromised for the benefit of circulation numbers, our relationship with the media has evolved to a point where the journalists and writers in our midst (just like you here) has set out and written some guidelines for both the media to consider, as well as for skydivers when they talk to the media.
http://www.dropzone.com/...etail_page.cgi?ID=48
http://www.dropzone.com/...etail_page.cgi?ID=49
Christy West who wrote these two articles is a journalist and gold/silver skydiving medalist with over 1,800 jumps at the time of writing.
For all I know this level of consideration comes naturally for your team at the Podunk Daily Star, but I can assure you the need for these articles weren't born out of a "pretty silly assumption and an insult to responsible media".
We're not as naive as to think that reporters won't find what is written here if we require registration to view the Incidents forum. We're simply putting up barrier to entry that will ensure that it's not as easy as a quick Google search for the irresponsible journalist sitting somewhere trying to punch out a few words to meet a deadline. The responsible ones will take their time, find this forum, find the facts and hopefully report on the incident in a way that will not see this community and the families of the deceased cringe, but honor the memory of our friend.
(This post was edited by sangiro on Dec 7, 2006, 4:30 PM)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by sangiro
() on Dec 7, 2006, 3:08 PM
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Post edited by sangiro
() on Dec 7, 2006, 4:26 PM
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Post edited by sangiro
() on Dec 7, 2006, 4:28 PM
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Post edited by sangiro
() on Dec 7, 2006, 4:29 PM
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Post edited by sangiro
() on Dec 7, 2006, 4:30 PM
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