UK television falls for the infamous canyon jump pic

[DobbinDodger]

Unbelievably, two years later, GMTV here in the UK ran an item this morning on this chap;

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/canyonleap.asp

As a good lurky snopester, I sent them the link via their contact form. Quality journalism at its best there!

[izanami]

I am glad someone mentioned that, I couldn't believe it when I saw it on GMTV news this morning!

[Friends of Alfred]

Metro ran with it as well - made me smile on the train this morning. I wondered how long it would take to get to this board

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Friends of Alfred

Metro ran with it as well - made me smile on the train this morning. I wondered how long it would take to get to this board

Metro isn't exactly known for its quality journalism.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by DobbinDodger

Unbelievably, two years later, GMTV here in the UK ran an item this morning on this chap;

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/canyonleap.asp

As a good lurky snopester, I sent them the link via their contact form. Quality journalism at its best there!

Next thing you know, they'll be featuring cabbits.

[marc137]

Next thing you know, they'll be featuring a fox with manges

[E. Q. Taft]

They probably got it from the Telegraph. (The newspaper, not the device.)

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Metro isn't exactly known for its quality journalism.

It's in The Guardian too, though... Mind you, The Guardian does show a picture from a different angle that shows the ledge that "might have arrested a fall".

The caption says the pictures were "released for the first time", so I wonder if Mr. van der Vorst only just got round to flogging them in the UK?

[Andrew of Ware]

Strange. The on-line [i]Telegraph [i]article mentions the fact that he would only have fallen a few feet and then goes on to tell the story debunked by snopes. The printed version of the story is clearer. It shows the three photos of the man leaping and a smaller one of the connecting ledge. The short article tells the debunked story in brief and then mentions the ledge.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Richard W

It's in The Guardian too, though... Mind you, The Guardian does show a picture from a different angle that shows the ledge that "might have arrested a fall".

I think the Guardian just about gets away with it.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

I think the Guardian just about gets away with it.

They also have a blog article and comment thread entitled "That Grand Canyon leap: have we been had?"; somebody in the comments has linked to the snopes article.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by E. Q. Taft

They probably got it from the Telegraph. (The newspaper, not the device.)

More likely from the device - they're that slow on the uptake!

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

More likely from the device - they're that slow on the uptake!

GMTV or the Torygraph?

[DobbinDodger]

If I get a reply from GMTV (ha) I'll fill you in.

I'm also waiting for approval for my registration on their forums

It must be a slow news weekend is all I can think. The internet is a boon to the lazy journo, but also a trap for the unwary hack.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by DobbinDodger

It must be a slow news weekend is all I can think. The internet is a boon to the lazy journo, but also a trap for the unwary hack.

Given everybody suddenly used the story at once, I think the original photographer may have just decided to try to sell his photos in the UK. There must have been some event that made all the papers and some TV stations pick it up, rather than a random piece of filler found on the web. And they are interesting photos, and it's not really "false" either.

[Don Enrico]

The German media watchblog www.bildblog.de links to the relevant snopes.com page in this article.

Background: In this article of 05/26/08, the online version of infamous German tabloid BILD claims to have "investigated" and "discovered" that the pictures that "fooled the world" are fake. bildblog.de exposes that this discovery was made by others (like snopes.com) already in 2007.

bildblog.de is a much read media watchblog, so don't be surprised about a rise in pageviews and/or mails from Germany, snopes!

Don Enrico

[DobbinDodger]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Given everybody suddenly used the story at once, I think the original photographer may have just decided to try to sell his photos in the UK. There must have been some event that made all the papers and some TV stations pick it up, rather than a random piece of filler found on the web. And they are interesting photos, and it's not really "false" either.

It certainly is false, without the context of the last pic in the sequence.

Did you see the section on GMTV? They presented it exactly as the original email forward did - as an amazing feat of courage with huge risk of death from a very long drop. Had they shown them all, I would agree with you, but then it's not as sensational a story, so they may not even have run with it.