15 May 2009
BoyandGirlScouts.com on FoxNews and MSNBC
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized .
Just a little more than a week ago I received an e-mail from Sarah Netter at ABC News regarding a post I put up 4 months ago regarding the new medical forms that the Boy Scouts of America are using and BuffaloEagle had discussed. I called the phone number Sarah left and talked about my understanding of the new policy which was fresh in my mind because our troop has been talking about it in our committee meetings. They were calling because of a Scouter back east who went to his local news station and discussed the policy with them and whose wife had commented on my blog entry. The next day my blog traffic doubled with references coming in from the ABC news story. Wow! I’ve been cited by a major news outlet. Well, mostly because of your reader comments, but my words were in there, too.
I quickly put up a tweet on twitter all excited. Then things got crazy. Foxnews called me and said they might want to put me on the air. Then MSNBC called and said the same thing. Each of them offered to send a car to my house to chauffeur me to their studios. I declined in order to ensure that one didn’t keep me from the other, but isn’t that cool?
The next day I headed out to the NBC studios in Burbank where I had recently taken my Tiger Cubs for a media station tour so I bantered with the security guard and tried to call my unit commissioner who works there, but I wasn’t able to find him probably because he was off helping someone as usual. I was surprised that I was able to just walk to the studio without escort and then sat around talking to the cameraman for a while before he sat me in front of a camera and put an earplug in. Since I’m wary of MSNBC being antagonistic to traditional values I was a little defensive going into the interview which wasn’t helped by the fact that I could see a promo run across the screen that indicated that they were presenting the story as a BSA versus fat people kind of thing. So, how did I do? You tell me. Here is the MSNBC interview.
I left and stopped by the guard desk to debate the future of Puerto Rican sovereignty with Jorge before I headed out especially early to the next interview in Los Angeles with FoxNews.
Unfortunately the traffic was unbelievably bad and the 20 minute trip took 90 minutes. Plus, I missed my turn because I kept getting called while driving and the address was a nondescript strip mall looking place that I couldn’t locate right away. So, I was late, but the show delayed my segment so I was able to get in and get seated right away. I talked to the cameraman while I was waiting and found out he was also a committee chair for a troop near me who was also concerned about this new policy. I was surprised at how controversial the segment was being presented by Fox, but I rolled with it although it was obvious they thought they were talking to Mr. Armstrong from back east. Here’s that interview.
I had a nice conversations with the cameraman on the way out and found out that his son was in the middle of planning his Eagle project which will be to hold a donation drive of old computers to benefit the Goodwill Stores. Cool idea.
I went home and changed out of my suit and the world went back to normal. I had to take out the garbage, remind my son about what he had wanted to do on his Eagle project, and check my daughter’s eyes for indications of pink-eye.
The world seemed weird again the next day when I got a call from and did a phone interview for Canadian radio and a Canadian newspaper.
Things are back to the simple life again although I did get a call yesterday from the Washington Post’s parenting blog who posted a story today and I noticed a lot of traffic coming from the San Francisco Chronicle who did a story on this, too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t post the video until today, but better late than never I say and now I finally have this all documented on the blog so I can point to it in the future and say, “That was my 15 minutes of fame”. Thanks for making it happen you guys. 
- My International Interview
- BSA Height/Weight Controversy
- Finally! Tad Gets to Say Ta-Da!
- Female Soldier Thanks Girl Scouts
- BSA & Cubs: Life Is A Picnic
6 Comments so far...
Boy Scouts of America Medical Form Height/Weight Controversy | BoyandGirlScouts.com - News, Opinion, Advice Says:
15 May 2009 at 6:20 pm.
[...] update to this post was all scrambled so I’m just going to point over to another post with this link and say that all of the attention to this post generated a lot of media coverage that I talk about [...]
Nick Wood Says:
15 May 2009 at 6:35 pm.
Watching and listening to the interviews you have done, I am impressed how well and eloquently you put across your points. I think the news people were surprised that you agree with the policy!
It will be interesting to watch how this policy pans out within the BSA and to see if it crosses the Atlantic to the UK.
All the best
Nick
Eric Says:
15 May 2009 at 10:00 pm.
Outstanding!! You did an excellent job of making your point clearly and quickly (given the short window of time). No small feat to appear on two cable news shows, generally on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and make a great showing on both! You represented BSA leaders very well!
Great job!
admin Says:
15 May 2009 at 11:13 pm.
Wow, thank guys. You’re too kind. I could have made my answers shorter, but I was trying to bulldoze my way through their efforts to shape my comments. I have a better idea how to handle myself if I ever get another chance to do a live interview. I need to be more lively for one. Shorter answers. I was afraid of them trying to distort my position so I was a little defensive, but I think I could be more relaxed in the future. If this is the cap to my blogging career then I don’t think I did badly so I’m content.
Dan - ScoutingNews Says:
17 May 2009 at 6:39 pm.
Congrats. I wish I could catch the interviews however the Gov’t is pretty good at blocking all video sites.
stevejb68 Says:
17 May 2009 at 11:19 pm.
Great job! The news people seemed to be trying to trip you up and you did a great job sticking up for the BSA. You did much better then I would have done.
