PJ2,
Good post. (and good posts others.) And I tend to agree with everything you said. Worked for a carrier one time whose first reaction to anything in question was to plug a download device into the DFDR & VR and take it to management. Even if it was a duty time limit question where the operating crew refused to continue one more leg! About that time I quit answering trip revision questions on the acars..... decided we'd just talk to em when we get on the ground.
It was very distracting having crew control pestering you in the decent several times demanding to know if you would go one more leg on some loophole that they interpreted.
You guys all raise valid points. If the camera camel pokes his head under the edge of the tent.... pretty soon the whole unqualified media will be crashing in too, second guessing every joke and movement that seems odd to them (if their record of obtaining CVR tapes is any indication.) A shame really, because if kept in professional circles it might give the profession insight.
This "pilot paranoia" by the media started drug testing, airport pilot screening, background investigations.... cameras in the cockpit may be coming next whether we like them or not.... (Supporting your union is the only defense imho.)
If misused cameras turn up comrads, I suggest we just go "full surveillance society" and drug test (on camera) congress, the administration, the president, the CEO, corporate officers, and anybody else we can think of. Big Brother won't like the camera pointed back at him will he?
Refresh my memory here..... We won the cold war didn't we?
Sigh....
I'm just not so sure anymore.....