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Bad publicity
I just searched on "glider" on the BBC's news web site. What I found shocked
me. Of 46 results returned for the period since May 1998, not a single one mentioned any form of achievement whatsoever in gliding. See here for the search page: http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/...&start=1&q=gli der&scope=newsukfs Given that British pilots have been spectacularly successful in international competition over the last few years, either our world-famous national TV news service is deliberately ignoring us, or our governing body is failing miserably in getting the message across. We all know the press love a good disaster but when a few Brits kick a ball into a net they all get gongs and the papers go wild for weeks. Why can't gliding get so much as a mention, even when we produce a world champion? I know ours is a minority sport but the British media are not usually shy about trumpeting British successes. For the (dismal) record, here are 33 of the 46 headlines on the BBC site; I think they speak for themselves. (The rest are mostly about Steve Fosset's preparations for record flights or other non-fatal glider incidents reflecting in various negative ways on gliding): Glider death crash boy named Teenager dies in glider crash Glider death would be 'perfect' Crashed glider 'caught on cable' Glider pilots in mid-air collision Fatal glider crash witness appeal Glider pilot dies after crash Glider crash inquiry opens Glider crashes into mountain Dead glider pilot named Pilot powerless to stop mid-air collision Inquest into air collision Glider pilot dies in crash Crash pilot faces law suit Glider crashes on main rail route 'Experienced' glider in crash Glider crash pilot named Glider crash inquiry starts Inquest into glider deaths Glider death pilot named Glider crash victim 'loved flying' Glider crash victims named Two die in glider crash 'Freak' air crash inquiry continues Elderly man survives glider crash Two dead in glider and plane crash Two dead after glider accidents One dead after mid-air collision Three killed in air crashes Three dead in glider crash Pilot unaware of rambler death Leading glider pilot dies in collision Two killed in gliding accident |
#2
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On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer"
wrote: ....snippage.... Given that British pilots have been spectacularly successful in international competition over the last few years, either our world-famous national TV news service is deliberately ignoring us, or our governing body is failing miserably in getting the message across. We all know the press love a good disaster but when a few Brits kick a ball into a net they all get gongs and the papers go wild for weeks. Why can't gliding get so much as a mention, even when we produce a world champion? I know ours is a minority sport but the British media are not usually shy about trumpeting British successes. The BBC is actually extremely parochial and very selective in its sports coverage and I wish I knew why. Parochial: Listen to Olympic coverage: a number of times I've heard reportage about some Brit winning a bronze but not a hint of who actually won the event. Selective: IMO the Beeb's soccer coverage has been excessive for 30 years (yes, even before it became fashionable for yuppies it got too disproportionate attention). Apart from that, horse racing, cricket and tennis everything else is minor league. Unless its golf, field&track or rugby it tends only to be mentioned if a disaster happens. Any connection between horse racing and sport totally eludes me: its pure gambling and not sport. My current theory is that the Beeb really only reports financial news and events that might affect the financial world. When you come to sport the only really big money is in soccer, tennis and horse racing, so that's what mostly gets covered. -- martin@ : Martin Gregorie gregorie : Harlow, UK demon : co : Zappa fan & glider pilot uk : |
#3
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"Martin Gregorie" wrote in message ... On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer" wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you cannot package it for TV. There have been a few ,very few, programmes about gliding over the 7 decades since the sport started but I wouldn't like to guess when the next one might be. Alistair Wright |
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On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:02:32 -0000, "Alistair Wright"
wrote: "Martin Gregorie" wrote in message .. . On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer" wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! Too true! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. Its worse than that. I was in a field When the only spontaneous response to a glider sitting in a field by the road is a yell of '******' from a passing school bus you realise just how strong the anti-avialtion culture in the UK is. But then we already know that. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. On one occasion (I was part of the retrieve crew) there were eight police cars, two fire trucks and a rescue helicopter. A local rang them. At least the rescue services blamed said local, not us. When we arrived the villagers were muttering about blocked roads and how they could never get a cop when they wanted one. Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you cannot package it for TV. Yeah, I know, but you'd think a short interview would be on when yet another soaring (or model flying) gold medal arrives in the UK. Maybe this happens too often for it to be classed as news? -- martin@ : Martin Gregorie gregorie : Harlow, UK demon : co : Zappa fan & glider pilot uk : |
#5
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In article , Alistair Wright
writes "Martin Gregorie" wrote in message .. . On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer" wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near Bury St Edmunds. I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines and a doctor. I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've never seen one disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously heavy. The next day I landed out again, my second phone call was a 999 to tell the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit non-plussed, but quite glad to know. -- Mike Lindsay |
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Hi Martin
Lack of publicity for soaring is a worldwide problem. Here in South Africa we don't exactly have a surfeit of world champions. However, when Oscar Goudrian won the worlds Open class in the first WGC to be held in Africa (Let alone in South Africa) it did not even qualify for a clip on national television. Some second rate football match that involved lots of noise and stone throwing was far better news. Pity but that appears to be the way of it. At least they appear to be even handed about this and ignore the occasional crash too. So - no negative or positive publicity here. Cheers Bruce Gregorie wrote: On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 16:02:32 -0000, "Alistair Wright" wrote: "Martin Gregorie" wrote in message . .. On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer" wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! Too true! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. Its worse than that. I was in a field When the only spontaneous response to a glider sitting in a field by the road is a yell of '******' from a passing school bus you realise just how strong the anti-avialtion culture in the UK is. But then we already know that. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. On one occasion (I was part of the retrieve crew) there were eight police cars, two fire trucks and a rescue helicopter. A local rang them. At least the rescue services blamed said local, not us. When we arrived the villagers were muttering about blocked roads and how they could never get a cop when they wanted one. Gliding will never attract the Beeb because there is no money in it and you cannot package it for TV. Yeah, I know, but you'd think a short interview would be on when yet another soaring (or model flying) gold medal arrives in the UK. Maybe this happens too often for it to be classed as news? -- martin@ : Martin Gregorie gregorie : Harlow, UK demon : co : Zappa fan & glider pilot uk : |
#7
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I have seen the emergency services twice at a field that I have landed in. Both times we called them. Maybe it says something about your landings more than an uneducated public! ;-) At 08:24 22 January 2004, Mike Lindsay wrote: In article , Alistair Wright writes 'Martin Gregorie' wrote in message . .. On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, 'David Starer' wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near Bury St Edmunds. I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines and a doctor. I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've never seen one disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously heavy. The next day I landed out again, my second phone call was a 999 to tell the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit non-plussed, but quite glad to know. -- Mike Lindsay |
#8
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----- Original Message ----- From: "David Starer" Newsgroups: rec.aviation.soaring Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 7:01 PM Subject: Bad publicity I just searched on "glider" on the BBC's news web site. What I found shocked me. Of 46 results returned for the period since May 1998, not a single one mentioned any form of achievement whatsoever in gliding. See here for the search page: http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/...&start=1&q=gli der&scope=newsukfs Your search didn't reaveal this one http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1431834.stm about some 90 year olds having a few trial lessons, but it's still not the sort of publicity we want. When we were doing very well in the Junior world championships I emailed the BBC online sports people to draw their attention to it. This was on a day when they were covering the European Blind Football Championships, wheelchair tennis, World Netball Championships.and US baseball*. Now, I have no problem with them covering these minority sports, but you would have thought that they could make room for gliding amongst them. Predicably there was no response - not even a reply to my email. The BGA at this time were also producing a deluge of press releases so they really should have been aware of the British sucesses. A friend of mine once complained to the Times newspaper that they didn't cover gliding and their response was that they didn't have anyone to cover it. She said "yes you do" and became the voluntary Times gliding correspondent. They used some of the stuff she produced but eventually got bored with it. Perhaps someone needs to volunteer their services to the BBC. *I know baseball isn't a minority sport for many reading this, but I'm talking about the UK here. Stephen |
#9
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On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:54:34 +0000, Mike Lindsay
wrote: In article , Alistair Wright writes "Martin Gregorie" wrote in message . .. On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 19:01:07 -0000, "David Starer" wrote: Well Martin, you and I both know that whenever you land out in the UK there will shortly be police car and a crowd of gawpers asking where the 'crash' is! In more than twenty C/C flights I always encountered this response. Even when I showed people that my engine hadn't fallen off, they still often could not comprehend the idea of flying without one. So much for our 'air-minded public I used to think. On two occasions some local worthy actually summoned the Fire Brigade who were NOT amused to find no crash and certainly no fire. I had this happen when I landed near a busy road near Bury St Edmunds. I had a policeman on a motor-bite, two fire engines and a doctor. I tried to get the policeman to help me derig, I've never seen one disappear so quickly. But it was a Skylark 4, notoriously heavy. The next day I landed out again, my second phone call was a 999 to tell the police there wasn't an emergency. They were a bit non-plussed, but quite glad to know. That's a good idea. I'll remember to do that in future. -- martin@ : Martin Gregorie gregorie : Harlow, UK demon : co : Zappa fan & glider pilot uk : |
#10
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Stephen Cook ] writes
A friend of mine once complained to the Times newspaper that they didn't cover gliding and their response was that they didn't have anyone to cover it. She said "yes you do" and became the voluntary Times gliding correspondent. They used some of the stuff she produced but eventually got bored with it. Perhaps someone needs to volunteer their services to the BBC. That's usually the way with the media (admittedly, I'm drawing more from my experience with music and theatre than gliding, but there might be an analogy here). If you point them at a story or item of interest and hope they'll cover it, odds are they'll ignore you. If, on the other hand, you cut out their need to do any real work themselves and provide them the story written up and ready to print, the hit-rate (and thus exposure) climbs considerably. Perhaps all clubs should have a "volunteer" in the form of a budding freelance journalist for feeding the press and public relations monster? And whilst 90 year old grannies taking to the sky might not be the sort of cut and dash image we'd really want to portray, any publicity is good publicity, and it was nice seeing a picutre of one of the club's K8s on the BBC website :P -- Bill Gribble /----------------------------------\ | http://www.cotswoldgliding.co.uk | | http://members.aol.com/annsweb | | http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org | \----------------------------------/ |
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