Lou Dawson tackles the Press about avalanche coverage and does a good job!

Lou Dawson in his blog Wildsnow.com took on poor at best and just plain stupid coverage of a narrow escape in an avalanche. His article Bad Newspaper Reporting About Colorado Avalanche correctly identified the victim’s survival as luck rather than the attributes written about by the papers. The poor article Knowledge was key for Lakewood avalanche survivor was published in most of the newspapers owned by the publisher and by several other papers and news outlets. (One of which I have all ready written about because of its backbone or lack thereof…..
Mountain Media Takes Nasty Spill after Confrontation with Vail Resorts.)

Lou takes on the bad reporting and the total lack of any avalanche consciousness on the part of the victim, he does it with great articulation and aplomb. Nothing I aspire to achieve or will ever attempt to imitate.

I want to say the newspaper and other sources are part of the problem that the rest of the world is complaining.

Poorly researched articles that work to sensationalize stupidity just lead to the proliferation of IITB (idiots in the backcountry). Stupid newspaper stories about situations like this, fuel the growth of IITB. Other IITB’s believe that they too can ride in the backcountry, climb a mountain (So body…..) or thinking that making IITB pay for their rescues will make a difference (.)

Instead, people who have no clue read the article about the activity and just ignore the cost of money, time and sometimes the lives of those searching for them. If idiots thought, they would not be IITBs.

It is bad if a paper in Iowa or Alabama wrote about a local out west who survived a slide. However, this is hometown stuff. The publisher owns papers in Vail, Aspen, Granby, Breckenridge, Snowmass, Eagle Valley, Rifle, Carbondale, Leadville, Grand Junction, and Glenwood Springs. The readers and advertisers are the ones paying for the rescues and putting their lives on the line to do so. Yet they promote IITB.

It is no different from showing arsonist a new way to start a fire.

 
Keywords: Lou Dawson, Wildsnow, Avalanche, Avalanches