Los Angeles, CA—Report after
report has been broadcast and published by the mainstream media alleging
dangerous misconduct committed by people piloting little camera drones.
“Experts” quoted in media reports are constantly citing serious danger and privacy concerns. They all talk about the large number of the sighting reports as a reason to regulate, restrict or otherwise outlaw this new technology.
There is just something
really fishy about this propaganda campaign.
There is not one reported collision between a single little drone and
any aircraft.
Despite the reality that absolutley everyone has a decent cellphone camera in their pocket there is not a single image
of a drone even near an aircraft. All we have are unsubstantiated claims from various pilots flying conventional
aircraft.
More importantly there is not
a single death or serious injury involving a civilian multi-rotor camera drone
despite the fact that more than a million of them are in the hands of ordinary
civilians. Many of these owners are
young teenagers.
As for privacy concerns
existing laws allow for the arrest of stalkers, peepers and alike. The use of a drone in no way insulates
someone criminally invading privacy. There
is not a single case involving these drones resulting in sufficient evidence to
bring about and indictment or conviction.
The fact is each and every
claim of drone misconduct has been debunked.
However new, non-stop phony reports instantly follow the ones that fail.
The late Nazi Propaganda
Minister, Josef Goebbels said it best; “If you tell a lie often enough it
becomes the truth.”
The only people cited in any drone
incidents were those found flying their drones in areas like national parks
that have suddenly banned them. It’s safe to assume that the violator’s were ignorant
and unaware of these brand new prohibitions.
The major media honchos have
their own issues and conflicts in this dogfight. TV and Newspapers are losing ground to
Internet bloggers like me.
I did not have to invest in expensive
presses or buy ink by the barrel. For less
than $10K I’ve acquired all the TV production equipment necessary to produce
quality video news stories and full documentaries.
Now, I even have two camera drones
to get the aerial still shots and video I could only dreamed of capturing two
years ago. The big media giants no
longer have an edge on me! Wow! What raw power!
In the next decade the entire
news and entertainment landscape will be Internet based. We will see some the major news providers
vanish altogether. It’s all changing by
the second!
The only apparent uncertainty
is how revenue the will be generated by content providers. One thing for sure the new power of the
little camera drones is making a lot of people nervous.
Drone technology is a very serious
threat to professional pilots. Not to
their safety, but their livelihood. We are close to aircraft that will fly free
of pilot error crashes and of course pilots!
Very recent emerging drone
technology has made great strides in collision avoidance software. GPS, computer software and imaging hardware
will eliminate the need for a large percentage of pilots. Right now there is no love lost between
conventional pilots and the burgeoning drone technology.
It was just after the Wright
brothers created air travel that the military discovered the value of being
able to observe enemy movement from high above.
Aerial reconnaissance soon gave way to aerial combat and later bombing
missions.
There are those in government
that fear the population and never want to see any leading technology in
civilian hands. It’s about people
control. Our First Amendment already
protects newsgathering drone cameras. Is
the Second Amendment arms bearing right potentially involved here too?
I recent years during civil
disturbances the FAA declared cities or entire regions, No Fly Zones. This was only about keeping newsgathering
helicopters grounded. It’s more than
obvious that this is to give government absolute power to control and dictate
what news is reported.
The whole drone propaganda
campaign is not based on public safety or flying Peeping Toms. It’s obviously all about controlling Americans and who
can report news.
Fantastic, well said, and absolutely right on. I've said all along that those of us in the drone community would not blatantly risk our investments by acting wrecklessly. Good job on this article. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteit's so unfortunate that the government manipulates the media so easily. They don't bother to vet the material they're given!
ReplyDeleteDon't assume it is just the government manipulating the media. The media love a scare story. Anything to get their ratings up. And if it takes out the competition at the same time...
ReplyDeleteIt might be possible to have some sympathy for the "news" outlets that are being put out of business..... but then they run with stories about an upcoming TV show on their station, the size of Kim Kardashian's butt and a new fast food outlet..... they are more like Entertainment Tonight and Honey Boo Boo than anything to do with news.
ReplyDeleteEurope, Canada and the rest of the world are far less punitive on drone usage. This commercial ban is victimizing Americans in a horrible economy.
ReplyDeleteWe need to simply ignore the FAA and government. They can't really police our drones anyway.