[Sca-cooks] SCA media relations
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Sun Aug 24 10:36:24 PDT 2003
During the "Satanic Panic" of the mid-1980s, the SCA was often
branded as a group/organization that would tempt children/teenagers
into a life of eeeeeevil. Since there was a group calling itself "The
Satanic Church of America" there was some (intentional?) confusion
between us and them.
Additionally an unsolved death in San Francisco was the topic of an
episode of one of those TV shows - i don't recall which, although i
did watch it - something like "Unsolved Mysteries".
A teenage boy had died mysteriously - it was unclear if his death was
accidental, murder, or suicide. Like many teenage boys, he played
D&D, drew pictures of dragons and monsters in his note book, hung out
with the SCA, and was involved with a specific branch of neoPaganism.
As far as i can tell, before his death his parents were not terribly
religious, but after his death his father became a Fundie and accused
every single group and activity the kid did with causing his death
(probably including rock and roll - at that time "heavy metal" was
frequently branded as "Satanic".
Let me tell you, slo-mo action shots of helmeted fighters can look
very dark and menacing, especially when shot with trick lenses at
funny angles.
Fortunately most of us came out of the 80s OK. Labeling all RPG's and
the SCA (our SCA) as Satanic and leading directly to Hell is no
longer a feature in the major news outlets, and various kinds of
"pop" music are not longer blamed for causing depressed teenagers to
kill themselves (nope, instead, they're blamed for kids getting their
parents' weapons and taking them to school...)
So, while it looks to me like the SCA has come out of the "darkness"
for the most part, there's no guarantee we will "stay in the
light"... We can still benefit from good PR.
I can't add anything to the debate on how to handle photogs and
reporters, however.
Anahita
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list