Heather,
 
The same reporter who wrote the original article (Christina Leonard, in case anyone has seen reference to her here and wondered who she was) ran a follow-up article on August 26 which was I suspect her attempt to introduce some balance. Of course, it ran somewhere like on page B-5, while the original ran on the front page, just under an article about Scottsdale mass-murder suspect Robert Fisher. It must have been a *very* slow news day when all they could put on the top of Page One was a lead story about a year-old murder and a story about the evils that Geocachers do. It's probably safe to say there is still some residual resentment among members of the Arizona Geocaching community towards the paper and at least one member of its reportorial staff.
 
I personally don't think there's anything to be gained by reopening the wounds inflicted by the paper. I hope the contacts we established with the land management agencies in September are continuing and positive (aside: As Chelby asked in an earlier post, any of the liaisons have anything to report to us?). If my hope is true, then we've probably repaired most of the damage without any further assistance from the "Republic".
 
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
 
-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com [mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com] On Behalf Of Heather Drake
Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 7:54 PM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] AZ Republic: other side of the story

Regarding this Rasmussen article....there's a guy at the Republic, Richard Ruelas, with whom I went to high school.  As a teacher at our former alma mater, I think if I were to contact him, he might be willing to listen to the geocacher side.  Maybe we could paint a prettier picture of Arizona geocaching to counter the negative press from the first article?  Any takers?  I'm willing to contact him and see if he'll listen if any of you want to bend his ear....

Just a thought,
Heather (aka Darsantre in her log sigs)
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I am NOT addicted to geocaching.  I
can stop any time.  Geocaching is not a
way of life for me.  I don't need to
geocache every day.  I can drive past a
known geocache location without
stopping to search for it.  I am NOT
addicted to geocaching.  Really.
http://www.geocaching.com
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