This story was not helped by the owners refusing to comment on what was going on. They could have quickly diffused this by offering their side of the story. Lesson learned is that, when the media calls you, hiding is not the best option – it makes you look guilty as heck.
I will share a lesson learned too – when the media calls, they usually already have the story they want to run. It is not easy to change their minds (although I think Frank has been highly successful in this regard when, forgive me, speaking frankly to the media).
It is wildly wrong to assume the media will write a fair and balanced story. Journalists are looking to tell a story, and by the time they get to you they are usually looking for support for a story they have already written (or at least sketched out) rather than simply reporting “sides.” What you think you say is not what you will be written as having said (unless the author is on YOUR side.
This is not directly related to the above, but we were lucky enough to have the “caring” mayor of our small town call the news crews down to one of our parks to help “warn” of the dangers of the imminent storm (high wind & large hail). The hail and high winds caused severe damage to dozens of homes, including making very ugly damage to the vinyl siding of many homes. Of course the cameras didn’t go into the homes to show that by and large there was little structural/internal damage, and when asked, “who is going to pay for all this?” I said that presumably most of the damage would be covered by insurance (for POH and/or if the homeowner had insurance). I don’t know what the residents who were interviewed said, but I think our mention of insurance forestalled any worse story. We didn’t hide but we didn’t kick the news crews off the property either, which could have turned the story into something else. If a particular homeowner didn’t have (couldn’t afford?) insurance, well, that doesn’t make as good a story.
Brandon@Sandell
Hi Brandon,
Thanks for sharing the insight and the story about your park. I want to add, if I may, that human brain generally works that way: reach conclusions very fast, then justify the decision with forthcoming data selectively. There are about 20 to 30 tendencies that embedded in human brain, on top of the tendency list is self interest/incentive tendency.
Interesting Bridge. What’s your source? Is there a good book on this that isn’t a text book and won’t put my ADHD into overdrive?
The following is a great book on thinking:
Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback – April 2, 2013
by Daniel Kahneman (Author)
Charlie Munger has a good tendency list and you can get it either through his book or google it online
Yup would like to know this as well