It's a beat up, nothing more or less.
But it is fuelled by those inside QF (and others in past ages) who go on and on about "it's just a business".....when of course in fact it's plainly not. NO other business straps its customers in little aluminium coffins and sends them into the high night sky, hours from land etc etc etc.....
The bad things do happen and from time to time in clusters. And sometimes with tears and even blood. Sherm years back did an audit of Delta and it would make your eyes water to see the internal management documents detailing the daily "events" in an airline which, with its code-sharing affiliates, had then about 1,000 airframes in the sky each day. Headlines galore if the wrong journalists got hold of the highlights....but to those of us who actually earn a living at it.....simply daily business as usual. NOT desirable and we all seek to learn as much as possible.....but simply daily life.
Our world is different from most business worlds and we are too......"sui generis" if you like....and so we have to accept that every time an ex BCG clown explains that "new" principles prevail....they're wrong and they are digging a very big hole for themselves every time a hydraulic system lets go or there's fumes in the air con system. For us....necessary evils but for them...."shock horror".
As Marilyn Monroe said (paraphrased) as it today pertains to our world...."those who know us better know better". Our own management don't know us....why should journalists?