Bird
Rest in Peace
Dan, the news media is really amazing at times. Of course, I learned about it first hand, got to see myself on TV a few times (which I really did not want to see
), was quoted in the newspaper a few times, etc. And they generally don't mind lying at all. One local TV reporter came to my office one day with his cameraman while I was commander of the helicopter section and told me he needed one of my pilots to take him and the cameraman up to get some aerial shots. I told him I couldn't do that, and he said he'd already talked to my boss, an assistant chief, who told him that I would do it. Naturally, I called the assistant chief who had not heard from the TV reporter at all, so I ran him off. Nearly 3 years later, when I was commander of the communications division, we had a power outage downtown that affected some of the police telephone system. That same reporter showed up that afternoon with his cameraman, and of course, I didn't mind answering his questions, but didn't know just what he wanted. He asked questions and I answered until his cameraman told him he was out of film. The next morning he called the chief and asked to interview me again (he could have just called me and I'd have been happy to try to help him), so the chief called and asked me if I'd be willing to meet the reporter and his cameraman in the "media room" for a more formal interview which I did. So he conducted his interview for over an hour.
And that evening, the only shot of me shown on the evening news was a one second shot, the one time I said, "I don't know." He had to ask questions for over 2 hours to get a shot of me saying "I don't know" and that was all he wanted. He could have saved all of us a lot of time if he'd told me that was all he wanted.
), was quoted in the newspaper a few times, etc. And they generally don't mind lying at all. One local TV reporter came to my office one day with his cameraman while I was commander of the helicopter section and told me he needed one of my pilots to take him and the cameraman up to get some aerial shots. I told him I couldn't do that, and he said he'd already talked to my boss, an assistant chief, who told him that I would do it. Naturally, I called the assistant chief who had not heard from the TV reporter at all, so I ran him off. Nearly 3 years later, when I was commander of the communications division, we had a power outage downtown that affected some of the police telephone system. That same reporter showed up that afternoon with his cameraman, and of course, I didn't mind answering his questions, but didn't know just what he wanted. He asked questions and I answered until his cameraman told him he was out of film. The next morning he called the chief and asked to interview me again (he could have just called me and I'd have been happy to try to help him), so the chief called and asked me if I'd be willing to meet the reporter and his cameraman in the "media room" for a more formal interview which I did. So he conducted his interview for over an hour.And that evening, the only shot of me shown on the evening news was a one second shot, the one time I said, "I don't know." He had to ask questions for over 2 hours to get a shot of me saying "I don't know" and that was all he wanted.
He could have saved all of us a lot of time if he'd told me that was all he wanted.