Interesting viewpoints in the DFW area
It’s no surprise to anyone who lives in the Dallas / Fort Worth area that the local newspapers are awfully friendly towards its local airlines. Both the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram tend to be very forgiving of American Airlines in particular but even Southwest Airlines gets a pass on occasion. The area is dependent upon this industry in many ways and, to some degree, it’s OK.
One local reporter working for the Dallas Observer, Jim Schutze, is a man I respect quite a bit. He worked for the Dallas Times Herald when it was in operation and then moved on to working as the Dallas bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle and writes for the Dallas Observer as well. Schutze is a liberal and, in this town, liberals don’t get much play. Balance between liberal and conservative viewpoints in the DFW area is a myth. That said, Schutze is first and foremost a balanced reporter who exemplifies what journalism once was and rarely is today.
Schutze wrote THIS entry on his Dallas Observer blog regarding American Airlines and, curiously enough, Mitch Schnurman, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News and, until recently, the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It was Schnurman who wrote scathing attacks on American Airlines management through the summer for the Star Telegram and caught national attention.
Schutze takes issue with the fact that in a recent Dallas Morning News column Schnurman took pilots to task this time for the AA operational slowdown without taking note that the pilot’s deed have resulted in a new development: AA wants to go back to the bargaining table with the pilots. He’s not wrong: that is news.
Both are right. The greater news was that AA is taking a beating and needs to come to a better agreement with its pilots. But the pilots are, in fact, driving their company to the wall and that can only happen for so long before real and permanent damage gets done.
As I keep pointing out: The pilots didn’t get their attitude today because they were treated appropriately by management. Management didn’t lead them well at all. However, you can only beat your own company up so long before not only does the board and creditors lose faith in the management, the public will lose faith in the airline. When the public loses faith in the airline, that is a very, very dangerous thing.
We have already lost faith in AA. Kill it dead, and today isn’t soon enough.
-R
Its unfortunate that the Dallas media was not careful in what it reported on Braniff during its financial travails. Financially Troubled Braniff and Beleaguered Braniff became part of the airlines name with the daily news bombardment that the public received on the airlines condition. This certainly didnt help with public faith in the airline BUT worst of all it continued to erode the critical (at that time) travel agent faith. So much of the reporting as I look a back on it now was frightening to say the least with unchecked facts and conjecture run amok. Each story caused a chink downward in the critical load factor figure.