After "Emily's Spring Break" at Lechuguilla Cave, somebody put
together a collection of TV news items recorded during the rescue. I
think I saw it at an NSS convention; no idea whether it can be seen
anywhere now. One of the more entertaining interviews has one TV
reporter asking Ron Kerbo if the rescue personnel had enough food,
water, and air. Kerbo just calmly assumed him that they did.
I too was kind of surprised by the advice about asking a reporter to
see his article before it was published. I had the impression no
writer would ever do that. However, a good reporter might get back to
you for clarifications, to verify quotes, etc. I remember when
reporters routinely edited quotes for grammar and such, but still
treated them as direct quotes. More recently, I notice that no longer
seems to happen. I think journalists now, in theory at least, are help
to higher standards of accuracy.
A great short article (well, short for the New Yorker) by John McPhee
about the extent that good reporters and the fact checkers at good
magazines go to assure accuracy is at
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/02/09/checkpoints
Incidentally, his book on geology mentioned in the article is a great
popular introduction to geology. Actually there were four books that
got consolidated into one: "Annals of the Former World," Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 1998. It won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.
Irresistible in my humble opinion. I've read the whole thing three
times: when the parts appeared in The New Yorker, when the individual
books came out, and when "Annals of the Former World" was published. I
still dip into it from time to time. It's 660 pages long, but hell,
middle-school kids read Harry Potter stories with more pages than
that. -- Mixon
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A fast runner gives a slower one a head start. The faster one can
never catch up, because he first has to pass the place the slower one
has just left.
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