bubba said:
Magnitude certainly plays a role in the media's coverage. This is now the second or third Mt. Hood S&R that has made the national news in the last few months -- CNN, Fox and networks giving coverage. Seems that getting lost in the Whites is just regional stuff.
Is this because the danger to life and S&R is that much more on a technical mtn?? I don't really see it that way.
These are the essential elements to getting a media circus started at a SAR mission:
1. Another TV station is already covering it.
2. A child is missing.
3. If not a child, then someone who lives in a nearby major media market. (And especially if it's that rarest of birds, someone who's a
player in the media market . . . )
4. The weather is good enough for helicopters to be swooping in and out. Doesn't have to be TV helicopters, but that helps a lot as well. Even better is if the TV helicopters are relatively free to fly over the area. (I'm not disparaging their usefulness in spotting missing folks, but sometimes things go past competitive and into counterproductive, even hazardous, with the air traffic.)
5. You can film standups with "The Mountain" in the background.
6. It's snowing.
Of all of these, number one is by far the best predictor of whether the circus comes to town. By far.
So, Hood is tailor-made for this stuff, except you don't typically have as many children as climbers involved. The one major exception to the exception was when [EDIT] seven students and a couple adults perished there back in the late 80's.
The public has no idea how many SAR missions go unnoticed because the incident commanders decide that involving the media may not be useful. The media can be extremely useful in getting the word out, and they can also get in the way. The good managers know when to use them and how to manage their presence.
