Re: [Paddlewise] media mangling.

>From: "735769" <735769_at_ican.net>
snip
>Whenever the media gets involved things can go wrong. After a television
>interview I got the shock of my life to see that what I said had gotten
>horribly distorted by the editing. What came out did not remotely resemble
>what I said.
snip
I'm alot more jaded too after two experiences:

I was interviewed for background after three downhill skiers died in an 
avalanche when skiing out of bounds; I emphasized prevention (digging 
snowpits for snowpack analysis, measuring slope angles, etc.). I showed a 
transceiver, which is a little radio beeper which sends out signals to help 
rescuers locate you AFTER you've been buried. In the newscast, Mr. Instant 
Expert Reporter did a voice-over "paraphrase" of my words with my image in 
the background. The transceiver was described as "an avalanche alarm" with 
the clear implication that if only the deceased had carried these wonderful 
little devices, they'd have been warned in advance, and never would have 
died.

In reporting scuba diving deaths, the mainstream media repeatedly refers to 
divers drowning after "they ran out of oxygen". The vast majority of 
recreational diving is done on compressed air (more advanced divers may use 
a blend of gases which includes oxygen.) Anyone actually diving on pure 
oxygen would creating a lot of grief for themselves, as the WWII frogmen 
learned, often too late. Pure oxgen is toxic at even modest depths.

Philip Torrens
N49°16' W123°06'

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