National Geographic created for itself a ratings hit with 'Doomsday Preppers'. Unfortunately, in order to make it less dry, the angle became weird. All preppers were lumped together with crackpots.

I believe the only worthwhile story here is that preppers want to distance themselves from people who want to self-identify as preppers, but who probably do a disservice to the name.

Reporters don't like to do stories with anonymous sources. They also want to know the terms of reference they're familiar with, like who is in charge, how many are involved, where are they located, what do they do, when do they meet, and how is the 'organization' structured. If they don't come back with these answers, they won't satisfy their editors.

Unless you are doing an activity which thrives on attention, it is rare that media exposure will do you good.

yes, a lot of us have been contacted by the press, almost all of us turn them down..

The Press/Media is your friend, when they can get a story about you & your plans.
On the flip side of things is that they will Fu@k you up real good for the world to see.
With twisted information. Be careful at all times is what I live by & watch your ( 3, 6, 9, & 12 ) O' clock.
I don't trust the Media, Cops & the Government at all.
They can get my number one, one finger salute, they know which one.

Been approach by the press before, just not related to prepping.

Caution is high advisable. Keep in mind the reporter only drafts the story, so even if they are honest and respectable, the piece can still get rather slanted coming out the other end of the editing process.

I get asked for interviews ALL THE TIME.
Some of them, I can sniff out that they are looking to make fun of us.
One interview that I declined turned out that way on The Current...there were references to giant claw fisted robots!
One I did for the Canadian Press, just before the famous Dec.21st doomsday date went very well.
The reporter was open enough to let me clarify that our members were not preparing for the end of the world due to the Mayan calendar...cudos to The Canadian Press for that one.
Others I have been interested in, but did not do because they found someone else off of Facebook or what have you, turned out to be ok from the reporting side of things, but the guests they chose were simply misinformed, and therefore gave bad information over the air!
It's kind of a crap shoot and you have to be good at figuring out the intentions of the reporter.
This is sometimes difficult, because the person contacting you is likely just a producer or researcher and will not give you many details about the direction they wish to take.
Some advice...find out who the reporter will be and check them out. Most radio and television personalities will have their own page on the web site of whatever media outlet they work for. AVOID ANNA MARIA TREMONTI AT ALL COSTS!
You can listen to her bit on preppers here... http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/03/23/preppers/
If in doubt, send them my way!

I can recall being slightly radical in my youth and having given an interview with a reporter in Kitchener/Waterloo for their paper. Hey, when your young your fearless and convinced your right and you don't care who knows it, right?

So, despite the assurances of the reporter when I got a hold of the story that he wrote and had printed...he had left out some things and pretty much lied about nearly half of the story. The jist of it is, I hadn't agreed with the reporter or the newspaper's point of view, so they made sure I really really didn't agree with them. Young people have no idea how to defend themselves when it happens.

Older and wiser (I suppose) these days, I always consider the press (and even the police at most times...but that is another matter) to be gathering intelligence AGAINST you first. They aren't serving you, or even the truth, over their own self interests. Politicians count here as well. I'm not trying to rant as an anti-anything. I'm just clearly stating what I have experienced and know to be true to me.

Good points everyone. As I stated I declined to do the interview. I'm sure she was trying to butter me up in some way as she seemed just so darned agreeable with everything I was saying and over enthusiastic about my piddly crap operation I have going on. And tried to reassure me that she would be meeting with one of the organizers of a local prepper group as well. I explained that I don't join "groups". Strength in numbers I understand, subjects of investigation by the press (or worse) is not the kind of attention I want. And with that I ended the discussion.