BEWARE OF THE PRESS

[Donk 0]

Hopefully most of you have no idea what I am referring to but for those of you who do let me say that you cannot trust the press. They will tell you they are writing a story about one thing then write a horrible dark story about something completely different and when you see the end result you will feel like you have been, raped, disemboweled, and hung out to dry. As maybe you should for talking to the press in the first place.

The intent of the story was to write about legal BASE jumping, in an effort to help with a legal event in our area that has been in the works for over a year. The sleaze bag reporter lulled many into believing he was writing a pro BASE story and was going to write about things like Moab, Perrine, and Bridge Day…instead he wrote a dark, criminal minded, law breaking version and has set any efforts at legal event here back years if not permanently.

Even worse, this person was our friend (or so we thought). He was a fixture around us for more than two years. He came to our parties, had dinner in our houses, and even worked ground crew on some jumps for more than two years…but he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing set out to destroy anything good we accomplished over the last three years. Not only did he write a twisted dark story about BASE, he stole pictures and background information from our private website and used them in the article.

For those of you who know what I am referring to all I can say is it was a tragic mistake that had nothing but good intentions. If someone needs to be the scapegoat for this then I will take full responsibility for trusting this scumbag and if tar and feathers need to be thrown so be it but those closest to this should be the one who get the honors. Justice will be served in many forms to both the magazine and writer, rest assured.

If you want to no more detail, email me and I will tell you all I know. Donk@kc.rr.com

[DaveO 0]

This was not good Donk.

St.Louis

"When it comes to BASE, I'll never give advice, only my opinion"

[JoeyRamone 0]

That blows. Need a pair of cement shoes made?

[KevinMcGuire 0]

I think that I read something about this this morning but the article as disappeared. Just curious as to why. I didn't get a chance to finish it. Is that missing article the one your referring to?

[mccordia 74]

Quote

Not only did he write a twisted dark story about BASE, he stole pictures and background information from our private website and used them in the article.

using copyrighted materials is a criminal offense?
Why not do it the American way and sue the bastard! If he used copyrighted materials (which your pictures are) he's toast..

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[TomAiello 26]

Quote

I think that I read something about this this morning but the article as disappeared. Just curious as to why. I didn't get a chance to finish it. Is that missing article the one your referring to?

Yes. I removed it by request of the jumpers involved.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Donk 0]

We don't want to give the dirt paper or sleaze bag reporter any more buisness or hits on their site, and the article does not paint a very positive picture of BASE. Something the lurkers in the boards do not need to read.

Perhaps I can set up a private link on our website that is password protected and if you email me, I will send you the password? I am also working on a flame page dedicated to these dirt bags...I will post something when/if either get done.

[KevinMcGuire 0]

No worries. I don't need to read it that bad. It sounds like it was removed for a good reason

[622 0]

Were you in Idaho??
What was the press doing there?
as in the B.. mo. base1

[NickDG 23]

This will be nothing new to old hands but bears repeating here . . .

One day in early 1990-something my phone rings and it's "Bob" an Executive Producer from CBS News (they’re all executive producers). The conversation went like this;

"We are doing a story on this thing you guys are doing, (he doesn’t even know what this thing we’re doing is called) and we’d like to talk to you about being involved on camera.”

“What’s the angle?” I ask.

“Well, it’s new, and it’s extreme (that use of the word “extreme” is becoming popular now and I already hate it) and we think it’s of interest to our viewers.”

“Bob, (he’s schmoosing me pretty good and alarm bells are going off in my head) it’s not a new sport, it’s been around for 15 years, and it called BASE jumping.”

“Okay, BASE jumping. We’d want to interview you and if possible follow along on one of your jumps with a camera crew.”

At this time (early nineties) any contact with the media, unless it was damage control, and even if it’s legal, is generally frowned on. So I said, “Well, the more we publicize what we do, the less we are able to do it.

“We could disguise you. Your voice and everything.”

I’ve already decided to bail out, so I went for broke. “My fee starts at $5500 a day with film rights to be worked out later.”

“CBS doesn’t pay for news.”

“You run commercials during the news, you sell news, but you don’t pay for news, that’s a pretty good racket.”

Bob hung up on me and just as well. I called around to all the other jumpers I knew he’d call with a head’s up. But he found one, a young one, and I won’t re-embarrass him here and now, and he swallowed the hook. And he gave them everything they wanted and in the process put into jeopardy a long time local object (turned out nothing happened, object is open) and when he told us what he had done, we waited, and we all held out breath.

The “News” Show turned out to be Connie Chung with a program called “Eye to Eye.” It opens with our hero launching from the (above) local object in Prime-Time on national TV. A jubilant jumper is hamming for the camera and throwing out good after jump one-liners when the shot suddenly dissolves to a head and shoulders suit who’s saying, “Yes, Connie, the problem of who rescue lunatics, like we’ve just seen, is becoming a problem. We are proposing a tax to cover the cost of these rescues or, in some cases, outright prevention.” This is when we are falling out of chairs, it’s ambush journalism at it’s worst, it’s leading a lamb to the slaughter, and it hit the jumper very hard when he watched what he had done.

Since those days things have changed (the media’s the same, we’ve changed) and positive publicity is alright when done right, but we are waking a very thin line. It seems as we hear more talk of freedom, we also hear more talk of regulation . . .

Nick BASE 194

[pullhigh 0]

Kudos on an excellent post. Being a new jumper, this sort of information is very helpful. I could easily see myself going down a similar road if it were'nt for information like this being spread.

Ganja

[link1 0]

Hey all....it looks like BASE jumpers are not thte only group swindled by the press. see attached.

[http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2004/04-1-034x.html]

[mcclone 0]

I sit here confused after reading the article then seeing your headline: Beware of the Press. So what you're saying is, you invited the press to some of your naughty jumps downtown, informed him with great detail of all of your jumping exploits, gave him your web site address, I'm sure he's even wearing a DNB shirt....and after all that I can't believe the nerve he had to write that story........ what a jerk in my opinion. Yes, beware of the press indeed.

Cheers,

Naive Punk

P.S. I always thought it was the job of the press to report the world as they saw it, not as their publicity hounds did. Maybe I was wrong.

[chuckbrown 0]

I've always believed that unless a reporter has proven himself to be trustworthy, don't trust them. If you don't know anybody who can verify that the reporter can be believed when he says he won't publish sensitive information, don't give him access to the info. There are many good reporters, but most are just crack whores who will sell their mother for a fix.

[jdthomas 0]

Tony
Hey man it did not take me long to put the name of the paper with the story told and I read the article.
Well bro thats a bummer, and I feel sorry that all your spots are burned.. but man you trusted a guy who makes his living on exciting storys you just where to open with him.
Thats not a bad thing as you are a good person and want to trust people, but man thats the press and thats his job.
My spots are not burned down here, you are welsome to come play.
I keep them cool by not taking lurkers, not even my close friends go and I certinally would not post pics and storys on a web site...
I wondered how long before that would get seen by the man.. well I guess the gigs up.
bummer

www.greenboxphotography.com

[murrays 0]

Keep this Hunter S. Thompson observation in mind when dealing with the press....(Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, end of Ch.13):

"....Why bother with newspapers, if this is all they offer? Agnew was right. The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."

Just my opinion. I'm not a Base jumper but have been burned too many times trying to "improve the image of skydiving" by idiots that are incapable of understanding what you are telling them. I think that, unfortunately, BASE has a tougher row to hoe in that regard.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[huckfinn 0]

The need to feel important and have ones ego stroked; it leeds many to regret.

Sadly, I'm not at all surprised Tony. Luv you man.

Cement shoes? For whom....

[base704 0]

Deja Vu?
Kinda?
Sorta?

http://blincmagazine.com/forum/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=1131&mesg_id=1131&listing_type=search#1135

You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

[base587 0]

The writer's dad is a lawyer. I'd avoid the cement shoes if you can

[gary350 0]

Quote

The “News” Show turned out to be Connie Chung with a program called “Eye to Eye.”

Funny memory for me - after starting BASE in 1989, I finally earned the # by getting an E in the summer of '93. Rich S. and I slept in (surprise), but ended up doing this waterfall in a state park anyway, even though it was light and there were already folks there.

So after, we're walking out and some wuffo says to his buddy after we pass them, "Didn't those assholes see Connie Chung last night?"