AOPA confirms CBS hatchet job on Eagles Nest Residential Airpark news story

In a story in today's e-mailed AOPA magazine, AOPA confirmed that CBS
ignored information given them during the interview that the Eagles
Nest Residential Airpark was a lot safer than they portrayed during
their "news" broadcast.

Following is an excerpt from the article: AIRPORT MANAGER LEARNS HARD
LESSON IN WAKE OF TV REPORT
CBS News' recent report on the "lack of security" at general aviation
airports and how the story took shape offer a strong warning to pilots

contacted by reporters. The CBS report used Eagle's Nest Residential
Airpark in Waynesboro, Virginia, to illustrate its premise--that GA
airports have no government-mandated security. But it wound up hanging

both general aviation and airport manager John Trissel out to
dry--something that a call to AOPA's Communications Department might
have helped avoid. "I told them that we're a gated community with
tire spikes at the gatehouse for protection," Trissel told AOPA. "I
told them about AOPA's Airport Watch and that we'd implemented
virtually all of its suggestions. I told them that I live right beside
the runway, and talk to the planes from my bedside, if necessary, no
matter what time of night they leave, to verify who's in the
aircraft." But none of that made it into the report. And Trissel ended
up victimized twice--once by CBS and again by hundreds of pilots who
sent him some scorching e-mails. "Almost all of the e-mailers wrote
back apologizing when they had heard the full story," Trissel said.
CBS also got a flood of mail from pilots. Rep. Vernon Ehlers
(R-Mich.), a pilot, AOPA member, and member of the House aviation
subcommittee, wrote CBS saying that security at general aviation
airports has improved dramatically since the September 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. See AOPA Online for more about this story and what
to do if you are contacted by the media for an interview

End of quote.

Corky Scott