graveleye wrote:DeanWiseman wrote:With all due respect to the people directly impacted by Mr. Jones' death, I think this is a situation where the NSS as a national organization needed to weigh in as a part of the public debate.
-Dean
NSS#32690
In a way that's what we are doing here.
Not exactly, Kevin. We're discussing it amongst ourselves on an Internet forum frequented primarily by cavers. I think Dean was talking about someone representing the NSS contacting the media, and possibly the authorities involved in this incident, to provide them with some more accurate information about caves, caving, and cave rescues. I also feel that should have been done.
Some of the reporters apparently contacted American Caving Accidents editor Ray Keeler with questions, since he is quoted in some of the articles. I used to get calls like that sometimes when I was the editor. I don't know what Ray told them, but what they reported was inaccurate and incomplete. For example, they did not mention the death of James Mitchell in Schroeders Pants Cave NY and the fact that his body was left in the cave for decades until subsequent retrieval fairly recently. There was a passing reference to Indiana caver Chris Yeager's death in Cueve Cheve (Mexico) but they did not mention that while Chris' body was initially left in the cave it was subsequently removed from the cave by cavers from the US and Mexico and returned to his family.
I have dealt with reporters a number of times in my caving career, and have found that they do want to be accurate, but are often more concerned with being on deadline. And many times their editors cut out essential information without realizing that it distorts the story.
It's difficult to get the accurate information into print. That's why it takes some skill to be a PR person. You have to know more than just the answer to the question - you have to understand why they are asking it and what they really want to know, how to answer in a way that will be meaningful and understandable to the readers, and how to answer in a way that will make it into the story unaltered.
But the ACA editor is not and should not be a spokesperson for the NSS on cave rescue, anyway. If we had one, it should probably be the NCRC National Coordinator, or perhaps the Safety and Techniques Committee chairman. Better yet, the NSS should have a designated public and media relations person for such incidents.