Fun with the news

Fun indeed.

So far I have done two interviews with newspapers on behalf of Salt Plains NWR. I am quickly learning that either 1) I am not very articulate or 2) the two reporters that I have spoken with really don't care about quoting me correctly.

The first newspaper was the Lawton Constitution, over the annual Pelican Celebration. That was a pretty good little article. I was misquoted several times (several? I mean everytime he quoted me he was wrong), but that's not a big deal.

This time, however, the reporter got lots of facts wrong. Here's the article: http://www.ocolly.com/2007/10/03/a-new-type-of-bird-migrates-to-oklahoma/

I assumed when we were talking on the phone that she didn't really know much about biology. (Go ahead and assume I'm understating). She asked such questions as "How are the pelicans adjusting to the water?" (To which there was a bemused silence on my end of the phone line - Sounding something like this: "????")

She also asked me to inform her about the refuge. What a wide open question that was! So I told her we have roughly 30,000 acres. 10,000 approximately for the salt flats, 10,000 for the reservoir, and 10,000 for the wooded/pasture/prairie areas.

What did she get from that? Here: "The refuge contains 10 acres on the salt flat plains and an additional 10,000 acres for reservoirS."

Haha. The other serious flaw is when she asked me what we had on the refuge - some of the other birds - and while listing off some, I said "Night herons"

Her translation - "Night hens".

You can't make this stuff up. I printed off the article and showed it to the refuge manager - asking him if he could pick out the mistakes and misquotes. He told me you just have to get used to it - and then went on to say he very rarely reads the articles he was interviewed for, because they're just going to mess it up. On that same note, he also said that it did absolutely no good to get mad, because they very rarely print corrections either. (He then went on to say he's never seen anything that bad before)

And I'm not mad. I really do think it's amusing. What's even more amusing is she is an OSU student. Now I have something in my arsenal for whenever the cowboy alums who work here start razzing me about OU.

Speaking of OU - was that a good game, or was that a good game??