Sunday, July 20, 2008
2008 Canadian UFO Survey
Yes, we finally were able to release the 2008 Canadian UFO Survey. We usually get it out by about March but this year we had some things pile up and were only able to finish data entry by June.
It seems our timing actually worked out better this year, though, since we released the study right in the middle of the History Channel's "UFO Week" and only a day after the airing of David Cherniack's new UFO documentary "UFOs: A Secret History." And Larry King had another UFO special on Friday as well, with some good guests including Stan Friedman and designated skeptic Bill Nye. (More on that later.)
I sent the news release on the Survey to a comparative handful of reporters this year on the morning of Wednesday, July 16, targeting those who had expressed interest in the subject during the past year. Curiously, no local media contacted me here in Winnipeg. The ones that did cover the story simply went with one of two wire stories done on July 16.
One of the first media to respond was a national wire service reporter who did a short hit with me that resulted in a brief national story. I had spoken with her via cell while away from the office, and on the audio clip you can actually hear a lot of ambient noise in the background. But she had got one glaring thing wrong in the story: that we "usually" get only 10 unidentifieds every year. Since I know I didn't say that, as soon as I heard it on the news, I emailed her right away and asked her to correct the figure. Not only did she call me back, but she did a more extensive interview that included many more details and corrected the percentages. This I found remarkable, as I have rarely seen major corrections like this on national wire stories in my job working with media. This reporter has my respect.
It seems our timing actually worked out better this year, though, since we released the study right in the middle of the History Channel's "UFO Week" and only a day after the airing of David Cherniack's new UFO documentary "UFOs: A Secret History." And Larry King had another UFO special on Friday as well, with some good guests including Stan Friedman and designated skeptic Bill Nye. (More on that later.)
I sent the news release on the Survey to a comparative handful of reporters this year on the morning of Wednesday, July 16, targeting those who had expressed interest in the subject during the past year. Curiously, no local media contacted me here in Winnipeg. The ones that did cover the story simply went with one of two wire stories done on July 16.
One of the first media to respond was a national wire service reporter who did a short hit with me that resulted in a brief national story. I had spoken with her via cell while away from the office, and on the audio clip you can actually hear a lot of ambient noise in the background. But she had got one glaring thing wrong in the story: that we "usually" get only 10 unidentifieds every year. Since I know I didn't say that, as soon as I heard it on the news, I emailed her right away and asked her to correct the figure. Not only did she call me back, but she did a more extensive interview that included many more details and corrected the percentages. This I found remarkable, as I have rarely seen major corrections like this on national wire stories in my job working with media. This reporter has my respect.
# posted by rutkows @ 7:07 AM 
