Media reporting of OFD Rescue

[Chuck]

[info]New Topic split from the Topic about the recent OFD Cave Rescue at https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=28795.25[/info]

Mail joins in with a couple of actual photos:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10177259/amp/Major-rescue-launched-save-trapped-caver-stuck-two-days.html

Main BBC report has also been updated to say they are heading for top entrance.

And the predictable comments have started too. One even compares cavers to Insulate Britain FFS. 

My favourite comment was ?surely we should be calling Elon Musk??
Great outcome and well done to all involved.

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

My favourite comment:

 

[wellyjen]

My favourite comment:

Just imagine all the other things the weird people who go caving would get up to that Daily Mail readers wouldn't approve of if caving were banned. At least underground, they can't see us.

 

[AR]

My favourite comment:

Ignorant knobheads whose knee-jerk response to everything is "it should be banned" should be banned...

 

[aricooperdavis]

I particularly like this bit from the BBC coverage:

Foggy and wet conditions in the Brecon Beacons meant an air ambulance helicopter was unable to land.

Instead, the man, had to be moved on a stretcher by specialist crews working in shifts.

Hopefully next time it won't be so wet and foggy underground and an air ambulance will be able to pick him up without the need for all that stretchering 

 

[David Rose]

Could an air ambulance rescue someone from Golondrinas?

 

[cavemanmike]

Or a drone  :blink:

 

[Badlad]

The trouble is, and what most Daily Mail readers don't understand, if caving was banned the sport would just go underground 

 

[Minion]

There?s a reason that toilet rag is known as The Daily Fail?

 

[SamT]

If caving was banned the sport would just go underground 

 

 

[Badlad]

Headline in the Guardian

"Caving safer ?than watching TV?, says rescuer after Brecon Beacons incident"

 

[Roger the Cat]

Delighted that he has been rescued despite of the difficulties. On BBC News this morning members of the rescue team were being interviewed and they were asked why the casualty should not pay the cost of the rescue. Their look of disgust and bewilderment said it all.

 

[grahams]

There?s a reason that toilet rag is known as The Daily Fail?

The article was very fair and positive towards caving with some excellent photos. Give credit where it's due. No other national paper managed to produce anything sensible regarding this story.

 

[Minion]

Delighted that he has been rescued despite of the difficulties. On BBC News this morning members of the rescue team were being interviewed and they were asked why the casualty should not pay the cost of the rescue. Their look of disgust and bewilderment said it all.

What time roughly was this on? Interested to watch it, but not keen to subject myself to hours of BBC breakfast drivel finding it 

 

[grahams]

Delighted that he has been rescued despite of the difficulties. On BBC News this morning members of the rescue team were being interviewed and they were asked why the casualty should not pay the cost of the rescue. Their look of disgust and bewilderment said it all.

That's the BBC which used to produce a climbing spectacular each year - Old Man of Hoy, Gogarth, Ben Nevis -, that had programmes about the GG - Ingleborough Cave link and the Kingsdale dives. What the hell happened?

 

[SamT]

What the hell happened?

The internet.

 

[Slug]

I was amused by the way, in true Daily Bile fashion, it was mentioned that the rescued person was staying in a  "?9 per night Cottage"    I'm surprised they didn't do a full article on this "Bijou Rustic Getaway Paradise" 

 

[Martin Laverty]

The Guardian article [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/09/caving-safer-than-watching-tv-says-rescue-worker-after-brecon-beacons-incident ] picks up on the BBC Breakfast interview with Steve Thomas and Paul Taylor.
BBC Breakfast also later interviewed Mike Clayton and Brendan Sloan, but I didn't see or hear anything about insurance...

Meanwhile, ITV had dramatic (mis)information on OFD's size, and shots of streamways in Thailand...

 

[Paul Marvin]

The Guardian article [ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/09/caving-safer-than-watching-tv-says-rescue-worker-after-brecon-beacons-incident ] picks up on the BBC Breakfast interview with Steve Thomas and Paul Taylor.
BBC Breakfast also later interviewed Mike Clayton and Brendan Sloan, but I didn't see or hear anything about insurance...

Meanwhile, ITV had dramatic (mis)information on OFD's size, and shots of streamways in Thailand...

Souds about right for the media  :blink:

 

[David Rose]

It's really so boring. There's a caving story. The Daily Mail does a decent job covering it. And people queue up to slag off the "Daily Bile", the "Daily Fail", etc, etc.

When did any of these people last look at it?

We also covered the 3Cs traverse (an article by yours truly), and no doubt some assume that was "hateful" too. Oh, and there was that piece in the Mail on Sunday about Thailand, with interviews with Chris and Jason. And that loathsome article I did about the 3Cs connection, among others. Pure extreme right-wing propaganda, the lot of them.

I've been briefing the young reporter who was sent down to cover the OFD rescue, trying to ensure he gets things right, and indeed, that we don't publish photos of caves in another country. There may be some stupid comments below the line on the Mail site, but that's how things always go. But the Mail hasn't suggested people should pay to be rescued, or that police officers have been risking their lives, or that the casualty was in any way reckless.

Maybe I shoudn't have bothered.