Advise about talking to the press

[A_Pommie]

Hi I'm after a bit of advise,
A couple of months ago I had a sub optimal landing experience. The AAIB have now published the report into this. The local paper are now trying to contact me with regards to the accident.
So do I talk to them or ignore them and hope they go away?

[Wrong Stuff]

From my very limited experience (talking to the financial press) they selectively use your quotes and make up whatever they want anyway. Personally, I wouldn't talk to them. I doubt they'll go away though - just prepare yourself to read a work of fiction. Better still, don't read it.

[airborne_artist]

Make sure you tell them about the school and old people's home that you bravely steered away from, but don't mention the kittens that suffered.

Or just say that you are grateful for the AAIB report, and wish to study it in full before making any comments.

[Cusco]

Don't talk to them : They've got the report let them report on that.

If you speak to them you will not have any editorial control over what they put out and they will try to misrepresent you and trip you up.

Don't do it.

Cusco.

[MaintainYourHeading]

talking to the press in aviation is never a good idea... usually makes more damage than anything else ... in every aviation company when an accident/incident occurs the operation manual requires the pilots not to talk to the press and redirect them to the appropriate departments. there is a good reason for that. press loves to extrapolate on aviation subjects. be careful if you decide to get in touch with them. cheers

[west lakes]

If you do
Beforehand agree with the reporter what questions will be asked, even suggest points that you want raised (don't forget that they may have no idea about aviation - use this as a way of getting points across)
Take time to answer and think through what you are going to say before you open your mouth. Don't be rushed!
If asked additional questions, either refuse to answer or take time to think it through.
Don't, whatever happens, lose your cool
Try and get some idea of what sort of story the reporter is after (local papers can, often, be less inclined to sensationalism - get some idea by reading the paper & other articles by the same reporter)
Our local paper once published a story about me containing some errors and missing some pertinent facts. A complaint to the editor ended up with the agreed text of a letter for the "letters" page, an explanaition and a correction to the story.
As far as you can you set the place & time

Stick to what happened not WHY
Don't make statements like "I should" "I forgot" "I made and error" - you get the point
Use the AAIB report as an indication - they do not, usually, apportion blame!
Don't use hindsight "If I had done this" etc.

You are doing them a favour, not the other way round

[GearDownFlaps]

Lie like a bugger , most press especially local reporters are not very clued up in matters aviation , tell them how the accident was caused by a failure in one of the fallopian tubes causing the vor needle at the end of the spinner to detach , see how much of the wanton bull**** they are daft enough to print

[bjornhall]

1. Don't talk to the press. No matter what. Under any circumstances. Ever.

2. Don't read it either.

[LH2]

I had a sub optimal landing experience

Mate I'm going to write that one down in case I ever need it :ok: :}

As for the press, I don't know but FWIW, perhaps have your lawyer send them a statement? Might intimidate them enough not to publish anything too silly.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

They'll print what they like regardless of whether you talk to them or not.

Local rag journos aren't generally all that bright, are they ... otherwise ... they wouldn't be local rag journos, would they.

And even if the journo gets it right - and you do get some good ones - the subs will think it doesn't make a good enough story and will mangle it at worst, or put on a completely nonsensical headline at best.

As a politician I do have to stay on speaking terms with the local press (well, in the longer term that is, there was a period of a few months when I made it clear I wasn't talking to them over something they'd misrepresented even more egregiously than usual) so I usually put some effort into telling them the real story in the hope that some of it might make it into print or onto the airwaves, and I think that on balance, in the long run, this does more good than harm.

But I can't tell you which way to jump with a one-off encounter with them. Could go either way, pretty well at random.

[BackPacker]

Sometimes you can negotiate that you get to see the final story first, to check for "factual inaccuracies". Particularly if you're talking to a non-aviation-knowledgeable journalist. So you may not be able to change the tone of the story but you can point out the things they got factually wrong after the interview, and get them corrected.

Press normally don't like giving insight in their story before it hits the presses, but if they need to choose between that and no story at all, you might get lucky.

[A_Pommie]

Thanks for the advice.
I hope I can just ignore him and someones hamster will learn to dance and distract him from this story.
Pretty much all my neighbours have been over this evening saying the reporter was knocking on doors all down the street.
I have nothing to add to the AAIB report as it is an abridged version of the report I sent to them.

[goatface]

Just refer them to the AAIB and tell them you've nothing else to add about this, but, while they're on the blower, you could tell them that while flying one night, you did see and get to know the Man in the Moon and how he got his Cow to jump over it.

Far more interesting and relevant at the moment than scrapes and prangs in flying machines.:E:p

[mary meagher]

Rule number one of the Press: Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

However, you may enjoy this one. About 15 years ago a l7 year old on a gliding scholarship scheme while flying with an instructor on a sporting day, had a front seat experience of failing to reach the airfield and having caught a wing on an inconvenient tree, cartwheeled into what was fortunately a very very soft muddy field. Arriving on the scene, tremendously relieved to find them both unhurt, I took some souvenir photos of the wreckage, and sent copies to the young lad so he could impress his school chums with his adventure.

Week later, got a call from the newspapers. Heard about the crash, can you give us details? Well, I said, nobody hurt, yes, some damage to the glider, but gliders do field landings all the time, no big deal.

I didn't realise the lad had shared the photos with the media. They featured the spectacular wreckage under the heading "Gliding Club Representative says this happens all the time. . . . . . . . ."

[SNS3Guppy]

Advice about talking to the press


Don't.

They'll print what they want to print, anyway.

[Zulu Alpha]

Best to do it in writing by answering questions by email.

Most journalists are lazy/busy so if you write the story for them then they will just copy it.

Don't answer the question, just write what you want to say.

ZA

[wsmempson]

You could take the Michael O'Leary approach and jsut talk complete bollocks, on the grounds that that is what they are going to write anyhow.

Michael Gambon, the actor, once claimed that he used to be gay. He had to give it up, he said, because it made his eyes water. He told another interviewer he'd started his career as a dancer in the Royal Ballet. He had to give that up as well, after he fell off the stage.

Or, of course, there is the Matt Damon approach which is to give interviews of such mind-boggling dullness, that very quickly journalists stop calling at all.

Good luck, whatever approach you choose; personally, I'd be inclined to say that you bumped your head during the incident and can't remember anything at all.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Are they interested in helping you not to make sub-optimable landings ?
No.

Are they interested in promoting recreational aviation in your local area ?
No.

Are they interested in creating a 'scary' story so that the Great British Public will rise up in terror and try to get recreational aviation banned everywhere, lest you fall on their houses, and schools, and hospitals ?
YES.

I once had a major failure in a 747, returned to departure airfield, deliberately didn't tell ATC anything, and they were canny enough not to ask. 5 minutes from landing I declared an emergency, so that the fire trucks and ambulances were on hand - we didn't need them, no disaster, but still the Press had time to scramble a helicopter to follow us down the approach and be ready to film the fireball. Around 3.00 am the following morning the Press rang one of the stewardesses, we were in a foreign country, and pretended to be a relative of one of the passengers, and ringing from our home counry. they will stop at nothing to get a sensational, headline selling newspaper.

Be polite, or they will roast you, but be firm - NO. They can get all they want from the AAIB public report. Have sod all to do with them.

Be Warned - no good will come of it.

[LH2]

Thing is, we know there are a number of journalists in this site. Off the top of my head I can remember two from the BBC and one from El Reg.

This would be a wonderful opportunity for them to contribute something back to the forum by giving their opinion, and perhaps a word of advice or two.

[BackPacker]

My thinking exactly. If I were a journalist, I would be very ashamed to read this particular thread. I mean, we have a very professional pilot here who was in a genuine emergency situation, but did not declare an emergency because he did not want to alert the press. And that's just one of the stories - there must be more like that, considering the advice that people give.

If I were a journalist on here I would either stand up and defend my profession, or quit.

[Bigglesthefrog]

I don't think I can remember one single account of an aviation incident that I have read about in the popular press that has been fully accurate.
Years ago, I read in the paper the report of a fatal accident in a T67 Firefly.
The paper went on to described the aircraft as a “rare second world war fighter” !!
Most people writing on this forum will recognise things like this and that’s why so many would advise saying nothing to them at all.
It makes one wonder how much rubbish they are writing on other subjects on which they know just as little.

[Lunchmaster]

I've contemplated posting on this thread for a couple of hours in the knowledge that I’m clearly risking a flaming for sticking my head above the parapet Finally I've decided that if no-one else is going to try and defend journalists I'll take the abuse and give it a stab.

I’m happy to admit I’m a journalist and PPL who reads/uses this forum. This thread does make for disturbing reading for any media professional and most of us journalists are aware of how we are perceived by the public. Here’s my take on the above:

Firstly, some context. I’m a business journalist so my work is mainly involved in covering the City. However, I also get the opportunity to write some general aviation features for our readers who include many private pilots and aviation fans. I’ve flown and written stories on aerobatics with Ultimate High and the Red Bull Air Race, business pieces about Gama Aviation and Jet Republic, flown the Harvard at Goodwood and more recently experienced formation aerobatics with The Blades. I’ve also interviewed well-known pilots such as Mark Jefferies and Peter Teichman. Naturally I consider myself very lucky and privileged to be able to do this occasionally in the name of work.

I have never received a complaint about misinterpreting or misrepresenting any of these people or organisations (although one did mention I once used the wrong figure for the entry speed into an aerobatic manoeuvre). I also consider myself a big supporter of general aviation – I even once received a letter from the General Aviation Awareness Council thanking me for a piece I wrote in a trade newspaper about how local authorities can protect airfields and how vital aviation is to communities.

I’m not a local news reporter so I can’t speak for those guys or tabloid journalism in general. But I would admit that there is a tendency in the media to always go for the sensational – it is what sells newspapers. Be it the biggest number, most astonishing fact or most daring escapade, drama is what readers want. Unfortunately the pursuit of sales can get in the way of the facts on too many occasions. It dismays journalists as well as non-journalists that this can happen and gives the whole industry a bad reputation. There is no defence for the kind of reporting that deliberate distorts the facts. News reports should let the facts speak for themselves and let the reader make up their own mind. Anything else is comment.

More generally I think there is down to a lack of willingness among some news journalists to really find out about what’s going on and to understand a subject properly before putting pen to paper. I can’t get away with that in business journalism because our readers would spot the lack of knowledge and pick me up on it very quickly.

But do we need to look to ourselves in aviation for this lack of understanding? Many other industries spend a lot of time and money trying to educate the press. Could aviation do more? I think too many people out there are prepared to just dismiss the media as a bunch of mavericks without trying to help enhance understanding and promote this fantastic pursuit of flying we all enjoy. But I feel no-one else is going to promote this industry for us. We must do it ourselves. It is easy to stand on the sidelines and pontificate while doing nothing.

Any pilot who has the chance to chat to a journalist and explain what it’s all about could aid understanding for the inevitable time when a reporter has to write an aviation-related story. At the least they could set themselves up as an informal contact to ask for an explanation of a technical concept or just to help with the terminology – on the other hand they could just point the journalist to the AOPA for an answer. Maybe it would mean the end of these stories quoting witnesses to a crash saying things like “and I heard the engine stall” when they mean the engine stopped. I know I'd rather get the gen from someone informed.

In terms of advice for dealing directly with the media, my views reflect some of what’s mentioned above. If you have doubt or reservations then don’t do it. You could, however, regard this as an opportunity to present your side of the story because the media WILL go ahead and run an article based on the facts they do have already or uninformed comments from others as I mentioned above.

While you’re under no obligation to speak have you thought about emailing the reporter a quote that you’d be happy to see appear in print? You therefore at least have control of what you have provided and can’t get tripped up by questioning or have your words misinterpreted. You need not go into huge amounts of detail. Just a snappy sentence or two will suffice. Journalists are busier than ever before because there are fewer of us around so make it easy for us and give us a soundbite you are happy with.

Sorry for the essay but if the above is useful or interesting to a single person on here then it is worthwhile. Maybe it goes some way to try and show not all journalists are ignorant, prone to sensationalism and total scumbags.

It appalls me to read this thread but it also frustrates me that all journalists are tarred with the same brush as tabloid reporters. The vast majority of us are trying to do the best we can at what is increasingly a difficult job. Some of us love aviation as much as you do and go out of our way to present flying in as positive light as possible.

Cityflyer

[Cusco]

Lunchmaster wrote:


I’m not a local news reporter so I can’t speak for those guys or tabloid journalism in general. But I would admit that there is a tendency in the media to always go for the sensational – it is what sells newspapers. Be it the biggest number, most astonishing fact or most daring escapade, drama is what readers want. Unfortunately the pursuit of sales can get in the way of the facts on too many occasions. It dismays journalists as well as non-journalists that this can happen and gives the whole industry a bad reputation. There is no defence for the kind of reporting that deliberate distorts the facts. News reports should let the facts speak for themselves and let the reader make up their own mind. Anything else is comment.


So why do you think most of us have advised him to say nowt then? Odds are it won't be a nice, GA friendly reasonable bloke like you but one of the types you describe above.............

The press are as bad the world over.: When I wrote off a perfectly good Archer (and almost myself and RHS) on landing at an airport up in the mountains in USA a few years ago the Local Batallion Fire Chief who came to our aid, after making sure we were OK said ' The terminal building is full of press, I'll take you out a side entrance' He was as good as his word, took us out of an airfield fire entrance and fixed for us at stay overnight in a B & B up in the hills, then gave us a lift the following day to the nearest Airport to catch a commercial flight back to FBO base.

Apparently the press were looking for us all over...........

Hence my healthy cynicism.

Cusco;)

[englishal]

Tell them you have Swine Flu. Our local rag goes mad every time someone catches it... ;)

[ExSp33db1rd]

Of course there are journalists like Lunchmaster, but unfortunately they don't own the newspaper, usually, and don't necessarily have a free hand, or do the final editing, and removing facts can make just as much nonsense of the final product if edited by someone who doesn't understand technicalities.

My own Letters to the Editor about local community matters get whittled down sometimes. and project a totally different opinion as a result, shoudn't be so, but happens nevertheless.

In my professional days, if overseas and hearing of an incident, was to immediately try to get a copy of the Financial Times, that papers' Aviation Reporter was top notch, facts not fiction, what he didn't know, or couldn't find out, he didn't mention. Memory fails me, but Michael Donne is the name I think I'm thinking of ? Probably as long retired as me now !

( sorry if incorrect )

[XV255]

sub optimal landing experience and swine flu on the same thread. We are almost writing our own story here...

"Once upon a time in an airport far far away I was coming in to land my kite, at the last 100 feet I sneezed. She pitched and rolled but I bravely held on and navigated away from the 500 pupil primary school with nursery. I remembered the great words of Sir Douglas Badder, "get down you bitch" and she touched down with what only can be described as a sub optimal landing experience.

While being checked over by a tame doctor he suspected I had Swine Flu and that caused the sneeze, so you see, entirely not my fault old bean but if you have sneezed today and eaten bacon this last 6 months consider dialling
0800 1 513 513 in England, 08454 24 24 24 in Scotland or 0845 46 47 if you are surrounded by valleys"The journo's will love it as it covers all the angles and the don't need to think to hard:ok:

[VFE]

"No comment" is all you need to say.

VFE.

[Blues&twos]

Something I've never understood is why people feel there is some sort of obligation to speak to the press. What does it achieve?

In this case, assuming an entirely factually correct report in the paper (unlikely), it just means hundreds more people know about the incident, for no reason. If they had been interested they would have read the existing AAIB findings.

If (more likely) the report is incorrect, hundreds of people are told a fairy tale, and you are named.

I can't see any good coming of it.

[worrab]

Something I've never understood is why people feel there is some sort of obligation to speak to the press.

If the press want a comment, it's often much more straightforward to offer something than to put up with the repeated enquiries. The disaster plan for most companies I've encountered includes a pre-written statement that acknowledges that an incident has happened, indicates that the information to hand is of course limited and states that the company is doing whatever is required to help those affected.

If you really get fed up with enquiries, Airborne_Artist's approach above will probably do the trick, but don't talk, just offer a written statement.

[IO540]

Many years ago I got done for doing a wheelspin in (you've guessed it) an XR3i :)

The police did a thoroughly crooked job fixing me up for something else (this was before the the CPS) with hugely inflated claims by the copper who saw it. IMHO he should have been jailed for perjury there and then because his claims were so obviously mechanically impossible. But the magistrates bought into them.

The resulting story (a full page in the local rag) bore very little relation to the court proceedings. One unpleasant result was that my then business bank manager saw the article some days later and considered withdrawing the borrowing facilities. I got legal advice which was that in the absence of a transcript nothing could be done about it.

I wouldn't talk to the press and if I did then only on the basis that they agree (in writing) to publishing my written statement. They are not all crooks (most local rag reporters are though) but you cannot tell which are good or which are bad unless you have had many dealings with them.

[chevvron]

Friends of mine used to run a pub on the south coast. One night, there was an 'altercation' in the pub to which the police were summoned. The landlady was summoned to the magistrate court to testify, and explained that as she was in a separate section of the pub divided from the area where the problem was by a solid brick wall, she hadn't actually seen anything.
This was reported in the local press as her refusing to testify what had happened.
Nuff said?

[airborne_artist]

I'll give you another example of the press adding two and two and making 137.66:

I was a TA soldier, during/after the Brixton riots in the early 80s. A couple of years later my regiment sent a composite squadron on a regular exchange/cross-training fortnight in the US with a US National Guard unit.

Now we know that USNG units have a civil powers support role, and we also know that they have been deployed (famously at Kent University) to quell riots. A journo on the Grauniad somehow got to hear about us going to the US, and decided, without reference to MoD, that we'd been trained to support the police/Home Office in riots, and wrote an article proclaiming this.

Total bolleaux - we'd not even mentioned the subject when in the US, and had done two weeks hard but fun long range recce training in the heat and humidity of the Florida pan-handle.

[IO540]

I think a lot of local rag stories get lifted from other rags.

In my court case, there was just 1 reporter present.

The following day, 1 rag ran the story. The day after that, five rags ran the story. Go figure, as they say....

I don't know what deals are involved in syndicating stories but they obviously cannot just lift them word for word from each other. So no wonder stuff gets distorted.

I think aviation-publication stuff (and specialised-readership stuff generally) is of a lot better quality because they are not so sensation-motivated and anyway subscription based media have a fairly steady readership. I am sure that e.g. Flyer magazine would do a well researched and accurate piece. But the local rags are the pits, and the national papers are not much better.

[airborne_artist]

I think a lot of local rag stories get lifted from other rags.A lot of local rags are controlled by a local near-monopoly. Round here all the local weekly rags are run from Oxford by the Oxford Mail group. Stories in the weeklies appear in the Oxford Mail (a daily, evening paper) quite often, and stories often appear in more than one of the weeklies, too.

[mary meagher]

All Publicity is Good Publicity!

(EG Ryan Air thinking of charging for using the loo).

Gliding clubs have observed an interesting phenomenon.....(most of our unfortunate arrivals bend the aircraft but not the pilot, deo gratias)

Nothing stirs up interest and brings in the punters in search of adventure like a good crash. . . . .

[Dan Winterland]

"If I were a journalist on here I would either stand up and defend my profession, or quit".

As well as being a pilot, I'm also a part time journo. But I only write about sailing. So your story is safe with me :)

[Lyco360]

From what little contact/exposure to the press I've had...

"You therefore at least have control of what you have provided and can’t get tripped up by questioning or have your words misinterpreted."

You never have control over what the press publish. At least by saying nothing you're in a better position to do something when they publish a 'quote from you'.

Secondly, as has been mentioned, regardless of how nice the hack at your door seems remember he has an editor... :suspect:

[A_Pommie]

Well the srory ran in yesterdays paper, without any input from me.
Apart from looking the type up on G-INFO and wrongly assuming that I was flying a microlight. The piece was a straight lift from the AAIB report. It included the error that the AAIB made by getting my take off point a good 40 miles out.
I couldn't really of added anything as the AAIB report was an abridged version of the report I wrote to them.
Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully I'll never do anything even vaguely news worthy again.

[bjornhall]

The antics of the media would be a much smaller problem if people would just acknowledge what deep inside they already know: Anything written in a newspaper is at most 2 % fact, the rest being equally distributed between ignorance and lies. It's all nonsense, don't believe a word of it, preferably don't even read it.

Makes little difference what they write then.