Ned,
"crap" and "Bull$hit", eh?
Is that what passes for witty repartee among your circle, Ned?
Or is that an example of 'quality journalism'?
It's not a matter of 'believing press releases', it's one of discerning fundamental, underlying truth, rather than resorting to the easy option of dim-witted and unoriginal journalistic cynicism.
And I speak as a dim-witted journalist, so I'm aware of the temptation.
While the Tilton 'schtick' is quite strong (and distracting), I do believe that underlying it is the fact that she is entirely and genuinely sincere about American brands and American jobs. I think that her wider history demonstrates that. If she wasn't serious, MDH would have been easy enough to asset strip and move on from.
And despite the brief interval during which MDH was Dutch-owned, it is a quintessentially and deliberately American brand.
While airframe production has gone 'south of the border' moving it has saved the company - including hundreds of jobs. (And exporting basic airframe construction to low labour cost countries is hardly anything new in the helicopter industry, as Sikorsky and AgustaWestland have shown).
No-one would claim that MD Helicopters has not had its problems with both quality control and customer support (nor even that the company does not still have a long and difficult road to travel), but to deny that Tilton has made it a real priority to address these areas is both fundamentally unfair and inaccurate.
"She's worked damned hard to reinstate proper customer support and quality control..." as I said, and she is on the road towards achieving it.
Even on this thread, there's some indication that things are changing, and that things are on an upward trajectory - albeit a shallow one.
In my view, most of Tilton's critics are guilty of small-minded resentment, and display an old fashioned envy of successful women.
Tilton is twice the man than most of her detractors are, and has bigger balls than they'll ever have. And she's done more for the US working man than any blasted journalist.
Why are so many journos only really happy when they're tearing something down, I wonder? Envy of those who actually 'do' among those who merely prattle?
Perhaps you should stick to taking beautiful pictures, Ned
Last edited by Jackonicko; 25th May 2009 at 16:31.