On Sep 28, 7:56*pm, smithcorp wrote:
There's such a genre divide in media reporting on soaring isn't there? . .. .I wonder whether its possible to encourage the latter type of more
positive story by the way the reporter is handled by clubs? . .

snip

That Post article pretty good, as newspaper reports go. Remember,
reporters are usually after "news" for the average reader, not
promoting a sport for enthusiasts. And the average reader (like the
average reporter) starts out highly skeptical, often scared.

While no one can really "manage" news media to get the story he/she
wants (and attempts to do so can have disastrous results), we might -
as a general proposition - get better coverage by doing homework on
the reporter's mission, being honest, and (most importantly) being
prepared - especially by learning to listen to what we say through
someone else's ears.

In 1999, when Don Engen and Bill Ivins were killed in a glider, our
club (which is near Washington, DC) got a call from the Washington
Post asking for help on a story. Obviously the prospect was
terrifying, since it carried all the portents of a very negative story
in a major newspaper, but we figured that if our Club didn't help her,
someone else would and might do a worse job. So, with a lot of
planning and no pretense, we had her out for the better part of the
afternoon, and the resulting headline was "A Mountain High: Glider
Pilots Mourn Crash Victims but Won't Stop Riding Winds". The closing
line in this story was a quote from a teen-age member; "You can see
everything up there . . it's the coolist thing. Like my dad says,
it's a legal high".

Luck and preparation helped turn what started out as a "ain't it awful
good men died in this silly sport" to a promotion for soaring!

Jim