Re: [TVPB] BASE on Aussie TV
I personally think Jimmy and Pete are good for Aussie BASE.
I say this as not an insider but as an outsider of the sport.
In OZ if some1 fucks up or dies it makes the news more and more each time. and more and more each time people will think "who are these dumb ass idiots and why the F-bip do they want to even jump off a cliff".
this gives the jumpers no support what so ever, and even verges on negative support e.g "fucking idiots" instead of "well they knew how dangerous is was".
With people like Jimmy and Pete on sports tonight, 60 minutes, ACA and vids (+ interviews) on extreme sports stuff on pay tv like the St00pid base and slim a base life, it puts a friendly human factor to the sport for the outside community (the rest of the tax paying people who own the cliffs and emergency services).
So when some1 fucks up people will think more along the lines of "oh shit, that’s not good, but they know its dangerous" (along the lines of a motor sport accident) instead of "what a fucking idiot, who ever else was with him should be locked up".
I see TV footage from other countries where its like a news story put together on bridge day style events, I'll assume they help with public support???, in OZ there is no such events, and due to the underground nature of the BASE community the only time BASE is really seen is when they show a funeral on the news and these mysterious people that no1 has any idea of who/what they are walking out of the funeral.
are these jumpers aliens ?
are they wanting to die?
are they dumb?
do they even have jobs?
are they selling drugs to buy there gear?
ok... maybe I’m going a little far.
but when the only thing ever shown about base is how some d00d died and everyone did a runner and people ring up the radio saying how
"leaving ya mate behind isn’t the Australian way".
I can't possibly see how someone on 60 minutes etc showing how good they are (even if they are crap) and answering questions can be bad for the sport.
Australia has a rather "us and them" mentality, people want to know who's living in the house next d00r, how ever once they know who's living there they don't really give a shit what they do as long as they keep it to them self.
If BASE is going to be in the news constantly with injuries and deaths it must have (familiar) faces to represent it, or it must be expected to cop shit loads of flack from the news and general public on talk back radio.
Sure it might seem like a smart move to have an old doctor talking to the media but from certain angles it looks like his just being the front man of a cult, with jimmy and pete when they speak it’s the actual jumpers speaking, guys who do the flips and shit you see in the short file footage the news shows and not some guy who fell end over end down some big cliff on the other side of the world.
It’s easy for the Media to manipulate BASE interviews/stories as the general public rarely sees it so they have no idea of what’s true or not, with skydiving its different, every person in the country knows at least 5 people who have done a tandem at a drop zone and can explain who the people/culture are/is.
I reckon more interviews and shit in the media is in the best interest of the sport (and cesslons vid collection).
BASE sells, why? Because extreme sports have awesome footage and BASE makes the number one in terms of extreme footage, 60 minutes wouldn’t have shown the BASE story unless they were 100% sure people would watch it over many other stories.
I say keep having good interviews etc but tell the network “hey if you fuck us over, we won’t deal with you again, and will simply give the other network a story 10 times better next time”, this is currently used by several sports.
BASE doesn’t need to be a front page sport but for the media to manipulate less the general public needs to see/understand more, and Cesslon needs more BASE footage on TV to add to his collection.
I can see how the Media can do bad for BASE but so can silence.
When Jason Fitz-Herbert died my old man was listening to the radio and it said “an anonymous triple 0 (the 911 number in oz) call was made saying he was dead, and the radio guy said how low the other jumpers are and people rang in bagging them out saying how its un-Australian, now I don’t know what really happened as far as the phone call etc but for any1 who listened to the radio it made it sound like he fucked up and every1 else was like “shit man fuck” , “go check if his alright”, “nah man fuck that the cops will get us” , “quick ring the cops and get the fuck out of here”
Having been first on the scene at a bad accident 2 nights ago and having been the person who called triple 0, I noticed they never asked my name, and when all the ambulances, police, fire brigades, rescue squad, etc arrived, no1 had asked my name, so I could be classed as anonymous to.
I have no idea of how Jasons accident was but maybe some1 did stay ?? or maybe they had “the pact” where they planned if some1 stuffs up every1 goes ??.
Either way the general public doesn’t no, because all they see is bad shit (90%), of the time, where as with the 60 minute story the general public can see its people having fun and the jumpers have a better chance of getting there side of the story across, sure there story may be heavily edited/manipulated/changed but like I said above, just take all you stories next time to a competing network.
This is my Opinion, please feel free to correct me on any mistakes, all *constructive* criticism welcome.
You may wish to check your facts there Tom. 
