[meteorite-list] - "witness" to July 6 Fireball PA

From: Darryl Pitt <darryl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 12:23:56 -0400
Message-ID: <54548ABB-1673-466D-9124-FCAD76BF95DE_at_dof3.com>

Hiya,

It has been my experience that editorial desks to do not want canned
quotes from press releases for feature stories any more than the photo
department wants to rely on canned publicity images. If it's a
remotely serious publication, they will not base the story on the
press release when the story and frequently it's barely referred to---
as this is contrary to journalistic ethics. A press release is all-
too-frequently merely the bait which attracts an assignment editor and
it starts and stops there. Publications hope to create their own
content. Sometimes a story will be almost entirely predicated on a
press release but this is rarely occurs except in trade mags,
community listings, small community papers, etc. It's difficult to
control content or perspective....hence the notion of "spin."

All best and good luck. If I didn't have to travel overseas later
today for my day job I would most definitely be out there with you.
Jealous and wishing you much success!!!





On Jul 9, 2009, at 9:37 AM, drtanuki wrote:

>
> Dear Steve and List,
> Your answer points to the need of an advance-prepared press release
> so that reporters get their facts straight and so that there is less
> chance of a mis-quote. Reporters are infamous for making headlines
> and ignoring the facts.
> Good use of the reporter and news to get the word out for video
> evidence.
> Have a great day in your hunt! Best, Dirk Ross...Tokyo
>
> --- On Thu, 7/9/09, MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr at aol.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] - "witness" to July 6 Fireball PA
>> To: drtanuki at yahoo.com, meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 10:23 PM
>> In a message dated 7/9/2009 4:46:27
>> A.M. Central Daylight Time,
>> drtanuki at yahoo.com
>> writes:
>> Regarding what a meteorite is worth.... it is worth
>> what you or someone is
>> willing to pay, so I suggest that you re-phrase the
>> question to the
>> reporter when asked, and reply that "I am willing to
>> pay up to... (or a realistic
>> price) range".
>>
>> Dirk,
>>
>> The problem is that I am not willing to pay anything for
>> a meteorite, at
>> least not now. I didn't come here to buy a meteorite. And
>> as such, I didn't
>> talk to the media about buying one. I was asking for
>> people to check their
>> video and to come forward if they had any footage with the
>> fireball.
>>
>> The reporters didn't ask me what I was willing to
>> pay. They asked me
>> somewhere in the context of "All this effort,spent time and
>> money, to come up
>> here and do all this work, are meteorites worth it?"
>> Which I answered with
>> the normal response of how they can be valuable to science,
>> bla, bla, bla,
>> and that museums and researchers and private
>> collectors are interested, bla,
>> bla, bla. And then I was asked "Well, what are
>> meteorites worth?"
>>
>> And, even if I was wanting to buy a meteorite, I
>> still would not quote a
>> price, because I don't give quotes for purchase when
>> I don't know how big it
>> is, what condition it is in, or the supply and demand
>> factors involved at
>> the moment of making the offer. All that can
>> change, and about the only
>> thing certain, is that when the time might come to
>> make a real offer on a
>> real meteorite, I would most likely be willing to pay
>> more or less, maybe far
>> more or far less than any quote I would give back in
>> the hypothetical
>> stage.
>>
>> Again, the question to me wasn't what I was willing to pay,
>> but what
>> meteorites are worth.
>>
>> Now, I have some work to do, and some rocks to go
>> find.
>>
>> Have a nice day.
>>
>> Steve Arnold
>> of "Meteorite Men"
>>
>> **************Dell Studio XPS Desktop: Save up to $400 -
>> Limited Time Offer
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>>
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Received on Thu 09 Jul 2009 12:23:56 PM PDT