As a self-confessed journo, I normally resist the temptation to leap at the bait frequently dangled in front of me by PPRuNers. But I’ve also been in aviation, mostly but not exclusively military, all my adult life, and I’m afraid I can’t resist a quick harrumph at eal401.
Eal’s remarks about Monday’s Panorama reveal a shocking implicit arrogance.
when plane-spotters were being used as evidence of where Prince Bandar's plane had been, all credibility leapt overboard and the ship sank.
Eal chooses to denigrate plane-spotters. In fact, in the absence of credible official information on aircraft movements, their evidence is usually accurate and often uniquely helpful.
Did that woman actually do any research of her own or just read the Guardian archive?
I gather eal doesn’t like The Guardian, but, whether you like its political stance or not, its reputation for investigative journalism is up amongst the best. Eal obviously doesn’t like the BBC either, but Panorama used to be in the same investigative league. Although it has significantly dumbed-down as part of the price for getting back into weekday primetime (instead of being hidden in the Sunday evening graveyard), it is still able to find and investigate worthwhile subjects, including Nimrod the week before. And ‘that woman’ is Jane Corbin, a courageous and extremely well thought of investigative journalist.
As for her final comment about getting government backing for bribes, that seems to be a reasonable conclusion from what she had demonstrated in the programme. As an ending to a programme, it was self-evidently comment, and not fact, and in my view, perfectly acceptable.
The odd previous post from eal suggests a connection with BAES, which might explain, if not excuse, his/her attitude. Whether or not that is the case, my view of his/her post is that it is meretricious claptrap.
Harrumph complete.
airsound