Article on Ben McDaniel - Vortex Springs Case

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I don't see what good giving Ben McDaniels any more attention does?

 

[57Writer]

I don't see what good giving Ben McDaniels any more attention does?

I'm curious. On what do you base this statement?
It is a fascinating story. There are thousands of posts here on ScubaBoard and other forums about this incident.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

The news media, as always, craps up the facts and calls this guy an experienced cave diver. He's not, its a black eye to cave divers. Its still being reported that he's dead in the cave. He's not, but the area land owners believe the media, and don't want to allow divers on their property to dive caves.



...and for anyone looking for attention? Fake your death, you'll apparently get famous.




This is a story that is best forgotten... not dragged out.

 

[57Writer]

I think you'll find our treatment of the story to be very sympathetic to your viewpoint. Unlike the upcoming NBC program about this incident, (Disappeared) our film (Ben's Vortex) is being written and directed by cave divers with years of experience. Personally, it startled me to see his family and friends make statements to the media about his diving skills, experience and knowledge. He obviously had them believing he was the second coming of Cousteau.
Our film is being made for a general audience, so there are plenty of "educational opportunities" in the script, where we emphasize training and safety. You will find some diving luminaries in our film that speak to this.
Mainly, we have pursued the truth about Ben, the incident at Vortex, and the events before and after his disappearance. Again, what we have learned is fascinating and the stuff that makes a good story.

P.S. I am a trained "Old School" journalist, and I agree that, for the most part, the media has "crapped up" the facts!

 

[mike_s]

Personally, it startled me to see his family and friends make statements to the media about his diving skills, experience and knowledge. He obviously had them believing he was the second coming of Cousteau.

His family also called the rescue divers "cowards" for not continuing to go on other dives to search for him when there was no evidence of scrape marks, etc that he had actually squeezed into those small passages.

This is after they gave up their weekends (or week days taking off from work), and at their own expense drove sometimes hundreds of miles to Vortex to participate in the search and ......... asked for nothing in return, risking their lives to search for a guy who wasn't even cave trained/certified and had no business being in there.

 

[Tortuga68]

While I agree with your sentiment Mike, I don't believe the McDaniel's ever used the word coward; they implied it by talking about the need for someone "brave enough" to continue the search

If you're going to put something in quotation marks, it should be something that was actually said...

 

[57Writer]

While I agree with your sentiment Mike, I don't believe the McDaniel's ever used the word coward; they implied it by talking about the need for someone "brave enough" to continue the search

If you're going to put something in quotation marks, it should be something that was actually said...

I may be wrong, but I think I heard them call for "fearless divers?" Either way, along with the $10,000 reward offer, it was certainly a turning point as far as the family's relations with the diving community.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Normally I would be in agreement with Mat. However the cave community is being portrayed horrible here. I think its fortunate that someone prominate and influential in the cave community is giving the cave community the oppurtunity to put the truth out. Even some of the dive community has questioned the attempts made, because they dont have the knowledge we do and have to voice an uneducated opinion here.

Tortuga there was a report where they called divers cowards. It happened after they flew a diver in way after our last camera dive which I think the family was still thinking Ben might be found on that dive. I just hope that when all this airs that Ben is found and gets what he deserves if he wasn't killed by someone. I know he isn't in the cave and that's it.

 

[Tortuga68]

Ok, I haven't seen that report... I do remember the implication, but not the actual word being said

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Normally I would be in agreement with Mat. However the cave community is being portrayed horrible here. I think its fortunate that someone prominate and influential in the cave community is giving the cave community the oppurtunity to put the truth out. Even some of the dive community has questioned the attempts made, because they dont have the knowledge we do and have to voice an uneducated opinion here.

The VERY best the cave community can do to get out of this, is let the incident go. Let the public forget about it.

The general public doesn't know who in the cave community is prominate and influential. I don't think they're going to take "our" word over their local news reporter which they've watched every day for years. Lets face it, the cave community doesn't need convincing. The cave community just needs the public to forget about associating Ben with cave diving(aint gonna happen with countless sensationalized documentaries).