"Gary L. Nunn" wrote:
>
> Paula Zahn on phone interview...
>
> Q. - "Sir, you found out yesterday that your son died in the helicopter
> crash, how do you feel about that?"
>
> A - (muffled crying by dad)
>
> Freaking morons. Isn't there enough to report on without putting
> grieving families through that type of pain?
There are hungry reporters out there. I've alluded recently to an
instance of a newspaper quoting various people they hadn't talked to but
had had quotes relayed to them.
That particular case was when a few guys (at least one a freshman in
college at the time) were making fireworks for New Year's in someone's
garage, and something went wrong, and there was a nasty explosion. One of
the 4 guys lived a few hours, 2 were killed instantly, and I think the
last one was alive when the parmedics arrived but wasn't for very long at
the hospital, if he even made it there.
There were a few things in the newspapers about it that were utterly
ridiculous, and others that weren't researched in a reasonable manner,
IMO, given the circumstances. In the "ridiculous" category, put the
insinuation that it was part of some sort of plot involving a South
American country, just because it happened in the garage of an attache
from that country. (No. 4 guys were just being stupid with explosive
materials, and one of them happened to be the son of that attache.) In
the other category, in one affected household, it got to where nobody but
the 9-year-old youngest brother would answer the phone, so they got info
from him and attributed quotes to the mother and aunt. (Maybe they had
said the stuff, but that's not the most tasteful way to handle the
situation.)
If I were in a situation like that, I'd keep the doors locked, ask the
sherriff to come by now and again and shoo people off the property, and
use CallerID and the answering machine to screen stuff. And break noses
if I had to.
Julia
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