Yellowstone Fires of 1988 - Media Coverage

Media Coverage

Since Yellowstone is one of the most famous national parks in the world, news coverage was extensive and sometimes sensational. Federal officials sometimes had only limited information to present to the media. The National Park Service was besieged by 3,000 media requests, not all of which the two park public information officers were able to grant, even with the assistance of a staff of over 40 employees. 16 more park personnel were assigned the role of liaisons with the media where fire fighting manpower was concentrated. By the time the fires were under control in mid-November, the park was still receiving 40 to 70 media requests daily. Media coverage of the fires brought the National Park Service more national attention than it had ever received, and the 1988 fire season has been called one of the most important events in the history of that agency.

Lack of understanding of wildfire management by the media led to some sensationalist reporting and inaccuracies. Some news agencies gave the impression that most of the park was being destroyed. On August 30, an ABC News interview with Stanley Mott, apparently a tourist, incorrectly identified him as the Director of the National Park Service (William Mott). In another story, The New York Times stated that the Park Service policy was to allow natural fires to burn themselves out, whereas that of the U.S. Forest Service was to suppress all such fires—a mischaracterization of the policies of both agencies. The media also had some difficulty distinguishing between these two completely separate agencies. Sources quoted by The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune later stated that comments attributed to them were fabricated, and one source commented that a September 8, 1988 report by the Chicago Tribune had more errors than facts. On the same day, The Washington Post associated the smoke and presence of military vehicles and helicopters overhead with the 1968 events in Da Nang, Vietnam, giving the impression of catastrophe. The fires had been very active in late July. In early August, fire managers reached a conclusion that the fires would not likely expand much further, due to a lack of fuel, and the Director of the National Park Service declared on August 11 that the fires were contained. When this optimistic announcement was followed by Black Saturday on August 20, and the firestorm that threatened the Old Faithful complex in early September, the media were again highly critical of the park service and their policies.