ICAS's John Cudahy Responds to CNN Air Show Segment

E-I-C Note: The International Council of Air Shows has sent the following letter to CNN to protest the 'shoddy journalism and sensationalistic reporting' demonstrated in a September news segment that aired on that network.

Dear Mr. Davis:

My name is John Cudahy. I am president of the International Council of Air Shows, a trade association based in Leesburg, Virginia that represents air show pilots and air show event organizers.

I’m addressing this note to you in your capacity as executive vice president of news standards and practices for CNN. Specifically, I wanted to pass along my perspective on the air show story that was broadcast on CNN’s “Out in the Open” program on September 3. (Incidentally, although there is a link to the segment on your website, this version has been heavily edited and does not include much of the material that originally aired.)

As an industry, we understand that air show accidents are compelling material for television news programs. There is almost always dramatic video to illustrate the story. Nationwide, air shows attract more than 10 million spectators every year, so there is broad interest in our events among the general population. And accidents typically occur over the weekend when “hard news” is a bit more difficult to come by.

But we believe that the occasional availability of dramatic and sometimes disturbing video footage comes with a responsibility for news organizations to deal with that footage responsibly, fairly and accurately. By almost any measure, CNN failed to live up to that obligation on September 3. In the hope that we can avoid misunderstandings of this type in the future, I’d like to summarize what we consider to be several serious problems with the story and how it developed.

1. Several air show pilots received calls from CNN personnel on the morning of Monday, September 3 asking if the pilots would consider participating in a live interview to be aired on “Out in the Open” at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT that same night. They were told that the interview would focus on what those pilots do to train and prepare for their aerobatic performances. The producers making the phone calls asked good, specific questions that would have supported this line of questioning during the interview. Nonetheless, most of the pilots sensed that things were not as they seemed and declined the invitation to participate. One of the pilots agreed to be interviewed that evening. During the live interview, none of the issues that were discussed in the pre-interview were discussed on air. Instead, the show’s host rolled accident footage, asked the pilot to comment on it, and then rolled more accident footage before the pilot could complete his commentary. The pilot being interviewed was in a studio that did not have playback capabilities, so the show’s host (Rick Sanchez) was asking the pilot questions about accident footage that he could not see. Understandably, he spent the first half of the interview looking surprised and confused as a result of this sudden change in subject matter and his inability to see the footage that he was being asked about.
   
2. Footage from a 1988 accident involving the Italian military jet demonstration team at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany was shown eight times during a four- or five-minute segment. Though Sanchez mentioned initially that it was footage from an accident in 1988, that footage was juxtaposed with more recent footage and repeated almost non-stop through the middle portion of the interview. Sanchez commented at least once that, “This is the kind of thing that can happen at these air shows.” Even a very attentive viewer would have been left with the impression that attending an air show is very dangerous for both the pilot and the audience.

In fact, the opposite is true. Air show flying can be dangerous and every one of our pilots is fully aware of that risk before they take off. But no air show spectator has been killed at a North American air show in more than 55 years. From NASCAR to IRL to hydroplane races, our safety record is the envy of the entire motor sports industry. This safety record is a direct result of this country’s air show safety regulations and our industry’s cooperative relationship with the FAA on spectator-related safety issues. We have worked very hard during the last half-century and with considerable sacrifice to absolutely safeguard the safety of our audiences. Protecting the audience is a moral imperative to the people who work in our business and a point of considerable pride in our industry. But CNN’s story suggested the opposite to your viewers. The juxtaposition of the Ramstein footage with the footage from more recent accidents suggested that air shows are dangerous to spectators. Demonstrably, quantifiably, and historically, this is simply not true.

CNN is under no obligation to promote or support the U.S. air show industry.

Nonetheless, it would seem to us that the real is story is that U.S. audiences have been so well protected during the last 50+ years. Indeed, just three months before that 1988 accident in Germany, that same Italian team was flying in the United States. They were prohibited from performing the maneuver that they were flying when they had the accident in Germany because the FAA deemed it to be unsafe. More recently, the air show community has suffered through four different, highly publicized accidents. In every single case, our system worked as designed and nobody in the audience was hurt. In any case, there is absolutely nothing about these recent accidents that should have prompted CNN to terrify the American public into believing that their well-being was a risk if they were silly enough to get anywhere near an air show. When it comes to spectators, our safety record is impeccable.

Mr. Davis, the public was not well served by this segment. At the very least, the producers and host of this segment did not do their homework and failed to understand the true nature and risk of air show accidents in the United States before airing a segment that suggested very strongly that air shows are dangerous to the spectators who attend them. Information on air show safety and accident history is very easy to come by. Indeed, just this spring, Miles O’Brien developed a CNN segment that accurately and fairly describes air shows, the risks that they present to pilots and the risks that they DO NOT present to the audience. The truth is not as exciting, sensationalistic or dramatic as this fictional portrayal of the danger of air shows. But it is the truth.

But worse than the inaccuracies and missed opportunities is the nagging perception within our organization and among our members that this segment was deliberately misleading and alarmist. The ambush tactics with the interviewee, the repeated use of largely irrelevant 19 year-old video footage, and the inattention to easily accessible facts that would have contradicted the central premise of the segment together suggest a deliberate effort to direct the story in a specific and inaccurate direction.

We would like to create and maintain a strong relationship with all of the news media and, in particular, with CNN. And we recognize that air show accident footage will continue to be broadcast on CNN and other networks. But we’d like the accompanying reporting and subsequent analysis to be accurate. If we deserve criticism, we’re more than willing to take it. Indeed, we welcome it. But there was no greater purpose served by that September 3 report. For no reason, the public was left with an inaccurate and unfair perspective on air show safety. It was very surprising to see that kind of sensationalistic approach from CNN.

I am not familiar with the internal review mechanisms used at CNN. But I would suggest that they be employed now to figure out what happened. We have come to expect this kind of “gotcha” journalism from some of your competitors, but CNN is the gold standard. It should not be participating in this kind of silliness.

John Cudahy, President
International Council of Air Shows

FMI: www.icashq.org