another example of bungled news reporting

Point taken.........................on the plus side, the seattle PI
came out to our glider field and did a feature photo shoot of one of
our club members sailplanes about a month ago, the image ended up as a
cover shot for one of their weekend features.

I think it was KIRO TV........did not see the correction, thanks for
the update!

Brad


On Aug 18, 2:58*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Aug 18, 10:39*am, Brad wrote:

Yesterday evening the TV news was all a twitter about a Homebuilt
Helicopter that crashed, killing the pilot. News reports were that the
helicopter was built by the pilot................today, we are reading
in the paper (on-line news) the the helicopter was a R-22, hardly a
homebuilt.....but here is the kicker, the pilot took off from a local
airport, and was flying to his house where he had built a helicopter
landing pad.................hardly a home built helicopter.

So................will the TV news folks make a statement correcting
their error, or will the sheep just be allowed to remain frightened of
homebuilt helicopters falling from the sky?

Brad

Well as frustrating as it is, this is likely the least effective place
to complain about it. You don't say which news station reported it but
if it was KIRO the online article (http://www.kirotv.com/news/17215611/
detail.html?rss=sea&psp=news) appears to already been corrected. It
was also syndicated by The Associated Press - which is a good thing
since if there was a factual error reported it should definitely get
corrected, and something seems to be happening to syndicated links to
the article. So I suspect the AP already has pushed the correction. In
this case I don't think it is likely that an on-air correction would
help anybody, the deceased pilot, his family, helicopter pilots in
general, etc. but if you think it is important try contacting the TV
station directly and explain to them why you think this needs an on-
air correction.

We really need to avoid coming off as criticizing reporters, many of
who will be asked with no notice to cover a story they have little
information or background on. Most reporters will appreciate being
told of a factual error as quickly and calmly as possible - just don't
add more information than you mean to that may unintentionally mislead
the reporter in other areas. *In rare cases of somebody getting thing
grossly wrong, fearmongering or just trying to be sensational then
contacting AOPA media relations folks is probably the best approach.

BTW many larger TV stations at least have access to aviation (esp.
helicopter) experts via their news helicopter pilots, whether on staff
or on contract, so on factual stuff you can always suggest politely to
a journalist to run things by these folks. I'm not sure if KIRO
operates a news helicopter. Many years ago a friend of mine was killed
in a helicopter crash, he had previously flown the news helicopter at
a TV station in Australia. The coverage was accurate and respectful,
with the on camera news desk staff even gently countering some
speculation/comments by witnesses.

Darryl
(I do some work with media/PR, but outside aviation).