SKYDIVE@f15.n233.z1.FIDONET.ORG (SKYDIVE) (03/25/91)
Reply-to: Dave.Appel@p30.f30.n231.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Appel)
Fido-To: dan briggs
Ok, I was the one who sent the copy of Dan Briggs' post
about the reserve cutaway to Sue Clifton, editor of
Skydiving. Please direct any flames/comments to me.
In defense of Sue, she DID contact both Dan Briggs, the
DZ operator, and the jumper in question before printing.
The Skydiving article actually did a favor to those
involved by quelling and refuting the erroneous "belief"
that the elastic keeper was worn. Dan was the one who
posted in rec.skydiving that it was "believed" to be worn.
And the article lays that uncertainty to rest by quoting
both the DZ operator and the jumper saying saying the
keeper was not worn.
Not to flame his DZ, but any flak that Dan received
from the DZ was not quite justified in my opinion.
Skydiving magazine did the right thing by not quoting from
the rec.skdyving post UNTIL AFTER giving all participants
the opportunity to provide input and set things right.
After re-reading both the article, and Dan's recent
post, the article contained no mis-statements.
To quote the article "Briggs said some people _believed_
[emphasis mine] that the reserve ripcord's elastic keeper
was worn, so that the ripcord handle fell out frequently.
Salas and Holmes say this isn't true. Salas said the
equipment was in good shape. Holmes said the ripcord was
'definitely' in the ripcord pocket when she left the
aircraft. 'I looked down,' she said, as we were picking up
our grips.'"
So for me, as a reader of rec.skydiving, this article
cleared up the "belief" that was in error in Dan's post.
Since Dan was the first person to put the information of
the incident in written (albeit electronic) form, it was
only appropriate, journalistically speaking, to use his
words and give him credit. Everything that Skydiving
printed with the words "Briggs said...." was in fact true.
Even the fact that some *believed* the keeper to be worn was
true, some people did "believe" that.
Conclusion: I think all parties acted responsibly in
reporting this newsworthy incident. Dan couched his words
in his original post saying 'believed' etc. Since this is a
public forum, there is nothing wrong in relaying copies of
messages from here to anywhere. And Skydiving did the
correct thing in contacting ALL parties before printing the
story. If Skydiving had printed the post *directly* with no
further research, then, in those conditions, it would have
been improper. But, they *did* contact all parties.
I have made efforts to get Skydiving's office computer
hooked up with a Fidonet Board based in Deland. Sue has a
modem, but it's not hooked up to their computer yet. The
Deland BBS is on the Fidonet, but it doesn't carry the
SKYDIVE (rec.skydiving) conference (newsgroup) yet.
(continued next message, so please hold your reply for a second)
--- XRS!% 4.10
--- eecp 1.45 LM2
* Origin: The Drop Zone, Dave Appel, 1:231/30.30 (Quick 1:231/30.30)
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SKYDIVE - via FidoNet node 1:233/13 (ehsnet.fidonet.org)SKYDIVE@f15.n233.z1.FIDONET.ORG (SKYDIVE) (03/25/91)
Reply-to: Dave.Appel@p30.f30.n231.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Appel)
Fido-To: dan briggs
(continued from previous message)
To recap an important point: Skydiving *did* contact all
parties concerned before printing the article on Cynthia
Holmes' reserve cutaway. I think Skydiving has more
professionalism than to quote something second- or third-
hand without getting the facts from the source.
To the others who commented on Dan's comments:
Please, let's not blow this out of proportion.
Skydiving is a jumper oriented newspaper, written, edited
and published by skydivers. They are on "our" side.
They report on a lot of things that don't get mentioned in
PARACHUTIST. They seem to be more timely in reporting
things than PARACHUTIST too.
To paraphrase what someone else wrote recently: If you want
to keep something a secret, don't post it in a newsgroup.
--- XRS!% 4.10
--- eecp 1.45 LM2
* Origin: The Drop Zone, Dave Appel, 1:231/30.30 (Quick 1:231/30.30)
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SKYDIVE - via FidoNet node 1:233/13 (ehsnet.fidonet.org)