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Travman

BASE on Aussie TV

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yes Oz - oh darn, I've given the location away. Sorry.



very true, Australia is a small place, I could get in my car and start driving over every bridge, I'd have them all coverd before this decade even finishes....well If I drive really fast :)

what country is the cliff in where the d00d in that vid jumps off a nice big brown wall, that had like this small 4 foot overhang (or man made platform) he fell and then did barrel roles then kept falling then did a front flip that d00d, what country was that ? was it europe somewhere or the US ?

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what country is the cliff in where the d00d in that vid jumps off a nice big brown wall, that had like this small 4 foot overhang (or man made platform) he fell and then did barrel roles then kept falling then did a front flip that d00d, what country was that ? was it europe somewhere or the US ?



I think it is in B***** I***** in the S** F*** F**** in the artic circle. Very well know place with some 4000+ ft cliffs. I think the video was shot at the Red Bull expedition there couple of years ago.
I think the cliff is A**** P***

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Just watched it.

I was surprised to find out that Jaap and I are two of only 20 people in the world to ski-BASE!!:D I guess I must know almost half of them......
Does this mean we rock?? Or are we just trying to make ourselves feel better?!?!:ph34r:

Now, on the serious side (not that I have one) I thought it came across ok..., good for tv turds like that. I thought Pete came across well and Livia was very well spoken also. The tv guys put their usual little shit spin and tried to drama-queen it up a fair bit but that's what they all do!! They try to make go-cart racing seem dangerous and hardcore.....
SabreDave

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......
Does this mean we rock?? Or are we just trying to make ourselves feel better?!?!:ph34r:



It means that you come from a similar gene-pool to Miles D. :D

Seriously though - what's a "good" story and what's a "bad" one is all subjective. Every story and any angle will piss-off someone in the BASE community. And as for ppl who say that the media should not be contacted anytime I say BULLSHIT to that. If someone wants to try and get public opinion changed on the thought that BASE is something other that what it is - a risky and dangerous activity pursued mainly by males - then they are undertaking a pretty hard task, but go-for-it in my opinion. Just don't go labelling others who chose to speak to the media as "bad" or "wrong" just because their views expressed on TV are at odds with your pet agenda or project or beliefs - that IS fascist, selfish and childish.

Democracy means free speech and as long as that speech is not malicious, slanderous, site-burning or misrepresentative then it's ok by me.

Now saying that I must say that Miles' apperance was an embarrasment to say the least - but I defend his right, as anyone's, to do his story.



g.
"Altitude is birthright to any individual who seeks it"

.

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Wow, didn't check the forum for a few days and sounds like I missed all the fun!:S

Arguments here typically become a brilliant example of ’its not what you say, but how you say it.’ If you have to stoop to personal insults to make your point, you probably didn’t have an argument worth defending to begin with. [/end of mother-style rant];)


Getting back to the 60 minutes piece…

It came across as a rush job- it lacked direction and didn’t address the two postulates of the introduction:
1) Why they considered themselves to be world-class athletes, and
2) Legality and precedent. Both here in Australia and overseas. (Having incorrectly stated at the beginning that BASE was illegal).
I told the producer the same thing and the effect on her was like smacking her in the head with a brick…she didn't take it well.

Edited to add: Before I forget,
“Dude, its like being born! Woo!”
has to be one of the more memorable quotes of the year!:D
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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Well done Gary.

Its a shame that my colleagues couldn't extend the same courtesy, intelligence, and common sense during a very similar program last year.

I guess that proves it was a subjective personal attack.

Thank you for your honesty & objectivity.

I would like to re-iterate what my wife said on another forum. Hypocrites.

I am bitter and twisted. ;)
Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

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Eh, my $0.02...

I downloaded and watched the piece with a couple of others and the general consensus is that there are a few "Oh puh-leeze..." moments but overall it wasn't the hatchet job that I was anticipating. The Aussies did a pretty good job of putting us in a realistic light.

It obviously wasn't the piece that I or other BASE jumpers would have put together, but that's not really to be expected. Still, I've seen far worse hatchet jobs from the news media that had me literally screaming at the television.

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

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With the aus crew, it seems that the more you contribute to the sport, be it organising, taking on students, opening up sites etc, the more sh*t you cop....go figure!?

Edited to add::S
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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J

Its a cultural thing in Australia. TPS. Tall Poppy Syndrome. c.f Greg Norman, etc. Americans may be loud, brash, etc. But at least they encourage and support their leaders, winners, and achievers. We support ours on the way up, and when they reach the peak, we ruthlessly cut them down.

On a more personal level. . . . .

I don't mind copping shit. After all, I give a lot too - so I expect it back. ;) I certainly encourage constructive criticism. It is a very necessary part of development. Assuming that is what you are after. Positive / constructive criticism is a process that examines a system/performance/person/etc, to determine areas of improvement. You can take this on board and improve yourself. Destructive criticism has the opposite affect. It is by definition counterproductive. Insulting people for the sake of it or for purely political reasons falls into this category. Achievement oriented individuals tend to be motivated by, or move on from the negative stuff.

Last year (ACA) I copped an absolute hiding from a number of "anonymous" people (BTW, IP's tracked). This I don't particularly care about as it falls into the destructive category. I don't ignore the comments, but in terms of giving them crediblity, well, not really. Its kind of like receiving junk mail. Unless you know where its coming from, you delete or trash it. Sometimes you might flick through it when bored.

Feral was one of very few people who criticised in an open minded fashion without the melodrama and exaggeration of others. I actually respect Feral's opinion because he is refreshingly & sometimes brutally honest. And you know how you stand with him and more importantly, you know who you are standing with. Onya Feral.

I was allegedly "sacked" from the ABA committee and described as being detrimental to the sport following ACA. This came from one of the many individuals that I took on their first jump and provided ongoing training and use of my equipment. Is that what this person meant by detrimental? The "sacking" was done publically on the internet. No personal email's, no phone calls, no nothing to actually tell me this. The notice was pulled off a few days later. I wonder why? More of the same from others.

Why do I mention this? Bitter and twisted am I!! Not really, it is to raise a point by using an example. Here goes.

Its strange that these same individuals are so passionately anti media lies, exaggeration, personal attacks, attacks against our sport. Yet they aggressively pursue the same strategy against one of their own. What hope is there for our sport and the organisations within when we circle like vultures waiting for the carcass of one of our family members to appear before us? There are some who can't even wait that long. They attack pre mortem. I don't get how people can be so opposed to the media slandering BASE jumping on one hand but then they use media in the same, no, worse vain to slander one of their own colleagues?

The point: totally opposing morals and ethics may indicate psychological "issues", intellectual deficiencies, lack of emotive control, a preconceived bias or perception against an individual or organisation (aha) that clouds sound judgement, etc.

ps. For the record, I actually resigned from the ABA. If anyone wants to know why, feel free to email me. Basically, I have other priorities in my life, I did not want to remain involved in the politics, and I had some fundamental issues with the direction the sport was taking in terms of early / student development. But mainly just other priorities.

pss - the 60 minutes thing was OK by me. Was it perfect? No? But no story, no matter how written, will satisfy each member of the BASE community. Was it similar to ACA? Yes. It had better components, and worse components. I thought most of the answers were well spoken. Pete was articulate as usual. Dan and Jimmy did OK (I have an unused hair brush Jimmy ;)). Talk about Yanks being brash though. Miles is 1MdB. But guess what, he's a personality. The world likes personalities, or hates them. I was surprised to see NO COMMENTS on the ABA forum about the Garie headcam footage. What's the go there? Are people starting to see the error of their ways or were the characters in the story not of sufficient quality to slander. The footage was good. And, as always, illegal was mentioned.

How a media story is received by the the jumping community depends on many factors. It all depends on personal perceptions. These include: the jumpers in the story, footage shown, locations, words mentioned, payment amounts (perceived and actual), issues raised, issues not raised, personal beliefs on legality and danger, knowledge levels, realistic acceptance of what the role of the media is and what society in general expects from the media, etc.

YOu can never make everyone happy.
Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

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I personally think Jimmy and Pete are good for Aussie BASE.

I say this as not an insider but as an outsider of the sport.

In OZ if some1 fucks up or dies it makes the news more and more each time. and more and more each time people will think "who are these dumb ass idiots and why the F-bip do they want to even jump off a cliff".

this gives the jumpers no support what so ever, and even verges on negative support e.g "fucking idiots" instead of "well they knew how dangerous is was".

With people like Jimmy and Pete on sports tonight, 60 minutes, ACA and vids (+ interviews) on extreme sports stuff on pay tv like the St00pid base and slim a base life, it puts a friendly human factor to the sport for the outside community (the rest of the tax paying people who own the cliffs and emergency services).
So when some1 fucks up people will think more along the lines of "oh shit, that’s not good, but they know its dangerous" (along the lines of a motor sport accident) instead of "what a fucking idiot, who ever else was with him should be locked up".

I see TV footage from other countries where its like a news story put together on bridge day style events, I'll assume they help with public support???, in OZ there is no such events, and due to the underground nature of the BASE community the only time BASE is really seen is when they show a funeral on the news and these mysterious people that no1 has any idea of who/what they are walking out of the funeral.
are these jumpers aliens ?
are they wanting to die?
are they dumb?
do they even have jobs?
are they selling drugs to buy there gear?
ok... maybe I’m going a little far.

but when the only thing ever shown about base is how some d00d died and everyone did a runner and people ring up the radio saying how
"leaving ya mate behind isn’t the Australian way".
I can't possibly see how someone on 60 minutes etc showing how good they are (even if they are crap) and answering questions can be bad for the sport.

Australia has a rather "us and them" mentality, people want to know who's living in the house next d00r, how ever once they know who's living there they don't really give a shit what they do as long as they keep it to them self.

If BASE is going to be in the news constantly with injuries and deaths it must have (familiar) faces to represent it, or it must be expected to cop shit loads of flack from the news and general public on talk back radio.

Sure it might seem like a smart move to have an old doctor talking to the media but from certain angles it looks like his just being the front man of a cult, with jimmy and pete when they speak it’s the actual jumpers speaking, guys who do the flips and shit you see in the short file footage the news shows and not some guy who fell end over end down some big cliff on the other side of the world.

It’s easy for the Media to manipulate BASE interviews/stories as the general public rarely sees it so they have no idea of what’s true or not, with skydiving its different, every person in the country knows at least 5 people who have done a tandem at a drop zone and can explain who the people/culture are/is.

I reckon more interviews and shit in the media is in the best interest of the sport (and cesslons vid collection).

BASE sells, why? Because extreme sports have awesome footage and BASE makes the number one in terms of extreme footage, 60 minutes wouldn’t have shown the BASE story unless they were 100% sure people would watch it over many other stories.

I say keep having good interviews etc but tell the network “hey if you fuck us over, we won’t deal with you again, and will simply give the other network a story 10 times better next time”, this is currently used by several sports.

BASE doesn’t need to be a front page sport but for the media to manipulate less the general public needs to see/understand more, and Cesslon needs more BASE footage on TV to add to his collection.

I can see how the Media can do bad for BASE but so can silence.

When Jason Fitz-Herbert died my old man was listening to the radio and it said “an anonymous triple 0 (the 911 number in oz) call was made saying he was dead, and the radio guy said how low the other jumpers are and people rang in bagging them out saying how its un-Australian, now I don’t know what really happened as far as the phone call etc but for any1 who listened to the radio it made it sound like he fucked up and every1 else was like “shit man fuck” , “go check if his alright”, “nah man fuck that the cops will get us” , “quick ring the cops and get the fuck out of here”

Having been first on the scene at a bad accident 2 nights ago and having been the person who called triple 0, I noticed they never asked my name, and when all the ambulances, police, fire brigades, rescue squad, etc arrived, no1 had asked my name, so I could be classed as anonymous to.
I have no idea of how Jasons accident was but maybe some1 did stay ?? or maybe they had “the pact” where they planned if some1 stuffs up every1 goes ??.
Either way the general public doesn’t no, because all they see is bad shit (90%), of the time, where as with the 60 minute story the general public can see its people having fun and the jumpers have a better chance of getting there side of the story across, sure there story may be heavily edited/manipulated/changed but like I said above, just take all you stories next time to a competing network.

This is my Opinion, please feel free to correct me on any mistakes, all *constructive* criticism welcome.

:)

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Hello,
What you are going through is not an Aussie problem, it's a human one.
None of these problems are new, just new people filling the slots.
Avery
==================================

I've got all I need, Jesus and gravity. Dolly Parton

http://www.AveryBadenhop.com

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-I agree on the haribrush thing Tom, but you know what its like trying to tell the boy what to do!:D

-The Garie beach thing has got a mention (but its in the back forum, not the public one). I'm chasing this up with Giles and Channel Nine, I even managed to get an apology out of the 60 minutes producer.


Cesslon, I'd really like to not reheat that little debate- at the end of the day, you weren't there. If you've ever watched a mate die or had to ID a friend or family member, you'll know that no one has a right to judge someone living that nightmare.

Don't get me wrong, you're entitled to your opinion and your right to voice it, I'm merely beseeching some care and sensitivity when doing so.



This thread is a testament to the media's view that their job is all about perception, not about the truth.

Objective reporting is an oxymoron.
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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Objective reporting is far from an oxymoron. The problem seems to be that people don't like the bad things about their issue/ story being brought out, which is a by-product of objectivity. If a report only focused on the positives and ignored the deaths, 'illegality' etc then that would be biased.

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Cesslon, I'd really like to not reheat that little debate- at the end of the day, you weren't there. If you've ever watched a mate die or had to ID a friend or family member, you'll know that no one has a right to judge someone living that nightmare.

Don't get me wrong, you're entitled to your opinion and your right to voice it, I'm merely beseeching some care and sensitivity when doing so.



Hi Jasmin
I wasn't stating what happend or what was right to do or wrong to do (as I wasn't there), was just trying to explain that if the BASE Community is totally underground and has no real public faces then when $hit hits the fan its free fireing for the media and general public as they don't really see much BASE to understand why or who these jumpers are etc.

hence the reason I reckon stuff like the 60 minutes episode did more good then bad.

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Overall, its good to see some intelligent, objective debating, instead of personal attacks. There is hope for the sport yet.
Stay Safe - Have Fun - Good Luck

The above could be crap, thought provoking, useful, or . . But not personal. You decide.

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I agree with you in theory, that objective reporting is about reporting both sides. But in reality, reporting is as much about perception as it is about stating what has happened. Objective reporting becomes an oxymoron because, inevitably, its not what you say, but how you say it.

I wouldn't classify a blanketing statement that BASE is illegal, whilst showing footage of Norway and Malaysia, as objective reporting…

If the inevitable fatality and ‘illegal’ comments get accompanied by comments about legal jumping and events, then that would be progress on objective reporting....:P
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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We are screwed in the media for the same reason every other form of "outside the norm" activity is. NBC TV during the early stages of the American space program tried to fix that when they employed reporters like Jules Bergman. Jules was an aviator himself and a big space buff, he understood things and reported events in a way layman could understand. They've essentially stopped doing that and now most aviation events, especially accidents, are reported with inaccuracy and hysteria. We are victim to the same thing.

The end of objective news began in the 1970s. Rather than report what facts they had, I noticed newsreaders began going off script and adding a little comment. Like after reporting a skydiving death, after the who, when, where, and how, they'd look into the camera and say, "that's nuts, and something I'd never do." No one noticed it was the end of giving the public the chance of drawing their own conclusions. It was the beginning of "infotainment."

Until they wake up and spend a little money really being as accurate as they advertise, and until the day comes BASE news is delivered by a BASE jumping journalist it will never change.

"And that's it from Smellveggan . . . This is NickD, BASE 194, back to you, Bob."

Don’t hold your breath . . .

NickD :)BASE 194

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Hey Nickster, I thought i would add to your post if you dont mind. You have to realize the only people who saw this live in Austraila. Of thoes viewers anyone who has satellite tv most likely didn't watch it. I havent watched 60 minutes since i got satellite. Thoes who have antenna TV who watched it ...of thoes maybe 10 percent watched it while the rest went to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink. So really , not many watched it and thoes who did probubaly didnt care unless they are base jumpers themselves. So that would narrow it down to a few people. I watched it after downloading it because i live in the states. I watched it one time and really can't remember really anything that anyone would really have so much controversy to talk about. It's like i watched "Most deadly season" yesterday about crab fishernman. They lost 6 guys in 1 day on two boats and nobody really cares unless your a crab fisherman or related to one. So what, its TV....It's entertainment ...who cares....Untill Lary King dies base jumping a building In NY...i really dont think there is anything that will change or anyone that will be affected by a quick piece on base jumping...well I did see that today is the end of the season for Mt.Everest....... But i will no doubt forget about that by friday....:S

Just my 2 cents......


In the end...the universe has a way of working itself out.... "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

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One week on its old news, but it did get 60 minutes (in Australia) their highest ratings of the year.[:/]
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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Another shrimp on the barbie ....

NickD :)BASE 194

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