Re: [wwarped] Would you likeTLN out?
wwarped wrote:
RhondaLea wrote:
because the only stories she has to tell are secondhand---stories she takes from those who were there, and at least in one case, twists to falsity.
some thoughts...
- until Mike's recent episode, none of the people she has interviewed has complained about the works. having been interviewed, she seemed to try hard be fair.
Building trust requires consistency. All it takes to lose it is a single lapse of integrity.
wwarped wrote:
- how often do jumpers actually
like interviews from the media and people from outside the community? heck, NickDG has plenty of stories of quotes being taken out of context, sensationalized, etc. many jumpers have been burned by the media. after all the work she has done, only one major issue? sounds pretty good to me!
But it is a major issue. And now we know that the potential is there.
Interesting the turn things have taken, though. It was not all that long ago that publicity of any kind was frowned on. Now it seems that any publicity is good publicity.
wwarped wrote:
- "I would prefer just to talk to the jumper myself." seems like an interesting concept,
but who actually tries this?
wwarped wrote:
would it not been good to if someone had interviewed Leroy before he left... the articles help build a history sympathetic to jumpers.
This is not the best example you could have picked, all things considered. And I doubt it would've have done anything to prevent some of us from hoping that it was as fixable a matter as flipping out and trying to steal a car.
wwarped wrote:
- RL was a part of BASE history.

That's almost as bad as a 22-year old telling me I probably quit jumping before he was born.
Once and for all, I have five damn jumps off that damn bridge. The first of them was my 36th parachute jump, period. Not only that, I wasn't a very current skydiver at the time, because I'd been spending most of my nights huddled at the base of buildings, antennas and spans hoping for the sweet sound of opening canopies. My training consisted of the old-style BD first jump course, a little extra help with my exit from Trace, a comment from...never mind...that "you know as much as I did when I made my first jump," and a final admonition from Legg to land in the water.
My point is twofold--one, I am not a base jumper. Two, and far more important, is that Brian did not go in at Bridge Day because of his age or his lack of currency and certainly not because of a lack of training. Next time you fumble finger the milk carton and have to clean half gallon off the floor and walls, be sure to tell yourself it's because you were inadequately trained to hold a milk carton. Human error happens, and it isn't predictable. Hysterical statements from the grief-stricken should be taken with a grain of salt, and to fail to do so is the mark of the sensationalist.
wwarped wrote:
Epi did not recognize it. it seems the "just talking to other jumpers" doesn't work well...
He could've read some of my old posts before going with his gut instinct. Lord knows, it's all there.
Speaking of which, there are plenty of jumping stories here and on Blinc, so anyone who wants history could spend an afternoon digging through it all. The other thing to do--which is what I have done over the years (in addition to getting my ass froze off in the middle of the night)--is talk to people.
I'm not going to address the issue of plagiarism, so I snipped that part.
wwarped wrote:
let's all just try to recognize the good. why fixate on the negative?
There's a bigger picture, and I predict a bad end. But for some people, any attention is good attention, so continuing to discuss it is just as bad.
It's easy enough to put her on "ignore," particularly since there is no principle under which she can be legitimately banned.