“This isn’t 1989, when the mainstream media was stuck with a couple of things it no longer has: comparatively archaic channels of distribution, and a dose of self-respect.”
Salon’s Ask the pilot (Patrick Smith) discussing the JetBlue emergency landing September 21. He says it was no big deal.
… as time went by the airline faced an interesting quandary: leave the TVs running, and sensational commentary was liable to scare the shit out of everyone on the plane; pull the plug, and people would quickly suspect the situation was more dire than the crew was letting on. The whole thing set up a weird voyeuristic triangle: The passengers believed they were watching themselves, when actually they were watching the rest of us watch them.
Good stuff, worth a click, as is this week’s column on outsourcing aircraft repair. Note: Salon requires a subscription or viewing a brief ad.