It's good to see that the vast majority of pilots treated the question with the respect it deserved and didn't descend to the patronising or insulting.
While I sympathise with pilots over the extreme scrutiny they endure from the media and the public, I must point out that it has always been the nature of the job, and it couldn't exactly have come as a surprise to any of you. Being a pilot is in many respects a glamorous profession, attracting respect and admiration, not least from members of the opposite sex!
The downside is that everything you do necessarily comes under the microscope.
Furthermore, with yours being such a technical profession, it is understabdably frustrating when the ill-informed make spurious judgements and expound them publically. However, once again this is only to be expected, and yours is hardly the only technical profession about which half the world seems to consider itself qualified to spout ignorant opinions.
To those who say they feel no need to defend their profession from anyone outside it, I would recommend that maybe you should start thinking about it. Everyone else has to justify every aspect of their profession to the world at large (doctors, engineers, even train drivers, to name but a few); what makes you believe that pilots should be exempt? My advice would be to grow up, deflate your ego by a few psi and stop being so introspective. Pilots do a wonderful job, and you have a lot to be proud of in your profession. Surely it is your duty to maintain that level of respect by inviting and welcoming constructive criticism, instead of sulking and drawing the veil of elitism around yourselves?
Lazlo's post was spot-on, IMHO.
Humbly submitted by SLF!