Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Last night Channel 5 news did a story about kayaking at Fishers Ford. They explained how the water is high, everyone needs to be safe, be skilled, wear helmets, lifejackets, closed shoes, no lifeguards, etc. Nice video footage throughout. But I did a double take and watched it again on the DVR. The kayaker they featured was NOT wearing a PFD! I hope I'm not offending some long time ACC member and super expert, but it seemed highly irresponsible to be featuring someone not observing the very rules they were expounding on. Of course, I hardly ever expect the news media to get technical details right on just about any story they cover.

It seems they seek those people out,
I don't know why they can't interview a good example......

I think when Rob and Mike went out there in the snow would have been a better story.
Nice scenery, Good Boating Representatives, actually good ford water.
But ,no, lets do the story when everyone else is out running rivers.

Well "Okay" Boating Representatives
They did have broken paddles

paddledog wrote:It seems they seek those people out,
I don't know why they can't interview a good example......

"Serious" paddling isn't all that well represented in the general population. I suspect the news media doesn't know a good example from a not so good one.

I seen this report & thought, here we go again. I can understand wanting to report some amateurs out at the park having fun yet don't put any on the news saying they are experienced kayakers when they don't even have the right gear on. This should be a report on what NOT TO DO out at the SSKP. It's like there saying wear a pfd yet showing how you don't need one.

I think the lesson here is to take the value, accuracy and depth of research examples from this one news story and then project the same levels to everything else they report on. Remember that when you watch the local news.

Unfortunately our local news market seems to be a first stop for new 'talent' right out of school. They have few life lessons to base their reporting on.

But, they are the ones telling us what's going on around us. Scary!

A recent example from a local news reporter ...."It's not snow, but it's this icy pellet stuff!"

Sleet, maybe?!

Does anyone have a link to the story?......

Steve- I saw it on 5 news online. Just keep loading stories, and it comes up. -M-

Link below:

http://5newsonline.com/2015/03/16/warm- ... ayak-park/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks......

My long time bud Gn Yakin, relates this WW Park story to the local news not getting the complete story researched before going to the public.

Dave is, as usual correct, but I think the issue is not local to NW Arkansas. I see it happening all the time.

I bet most folks understand I am retired from a paying job now. As a result I have become a news junkie in my time spent inside out of the recent cold weather.

I like to see the reporting on a news event from various sources. The evening news hour is a prime example of how the facts are researched and reported.

It is just amazing to see how different news sources present the so called facts to their audiences.

Dave mentions inexperience of the reporters. Man I see this all the time. Our local newspaper was gobbled up by an out of state news empire. Suddenly in depth reporting went away. The same stories we read via the internet get repeated a few days later as local news. What is reported seems to me to mirror the views of the owner of the out of state organization. Same type of thing on local TV news in that most all the experienced "make that long time reporters" have been replaced with new young faces that no doubt work for far less than the folks that were replaced. Even a lot of the so called anchors have gone away. This is not just the commercial news outlets, our OETA news staff went from several long time anchors to only one and the reporters from the field are obviously new to the job.

I have the time to get the news from a variety of sources. Even then the true facts are really hard to figure out. I bet few have the time to research I do.

My take is if the public only gets the news from one source they get their facts filtered through what ever the news bias is for that source. It is not just the news reporting sources either. It is the people making the news bending the facts to support their point of view as well.

Which is in my opinion a very scary thing. Getting your news in 60 second sound bites without reporting the entire event leaves the truth open to what ever. IE, I bet that newspaper reporter had a dead line, went out to the WW park and made do with what ever was going on the point in time they arrived. Went back to the office and produced the story. No time to visit with the WW Park officials or experienced boaters to get background information.

No matter what our little group does, that news paper's image of a kayaker out there is going to be their readership's image of the WW Park.

We can and should do all we can to present safe and fun ways to enjoy the areas streams. Thanks to fellow boaters like PaddleDog for doing what they do to help get the word out on the sport we all love. Off my milk crate, back to the normal message board topics.

What he said.-M-