Originally Posted by
The Nip
Disappointing you have been taken in by a report in the DM. There is a report, re members of crew being removed from an aircraft. The rest is, at the moment, just a story, unless you know differently. But it makes for a story.
Depending where people stand, this will either be those saying it is spiteful, or someone potentially saving an aircraft and more importantly lives.
Disappointing that you're unable to distinguish between uncritical belief in media stories and concern for public perception. I know nothing about the incident, which makes me no different to the average punter reading the story. Rags that the Mail and its online namesake may be, they have sizeable readerships and influence public views. Implying that there is little or no reputational damage because the backstory could just be made up is like saying that the Army suffered no reputational damage from the Mirror's made-up prisoner torture story during TELIC.
Anyway, ways of working at the heart of government mean that unnamed 'sources' carry more weight with the public than they really should.