Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: CNN coverage

[Denise Meier and/or Michael Jacob (dmmj]

I wanted to share my experience of TV coverage. Years ago, I bought a
house with 4 other people in Oakland, California. It was an estate sale,
and the owner had been a gay man who had died of AIDS. Somehow, a local TV
station got interested in the story (I think there was some issue at the
time about real estate disclosure laws), and through our R.E. agent, who
was a lesbian, they got hold of us. Only two of us met with the TV crew,
and we tried to indicate that we were a married couple, in order to look
more "normal". Our sound bites were fine, but at the end they had me take
out one of some glasses we had bought from the estate, and just look at
it.  Had I been more savvy I would have insisted that I drink from one of
them, but instead the story ended with me looking at the glass, pensively,
looking like I was wondering if it was safe to drink from it...I realized
that I had let them lead me through the story that THEY wanted to present. 

The moral being, lead them through the story YOU want to present...they'll
still cut it up and mangle it, but don't give them any shots like the one
I did. 

Denise Meier
Two Acre Wood
Sebastopol, CA