Note to the media: Definitions of expert and reporter?
IMO, an expert is someone who has achieved a distinction of high level professionalism in a particular area. Airline captains, senior maintenance engineers, people with degrees and senior experience in management and economics, etc.
Unfortunately, while many areas of science engineering, and economics require a high level of education and training to be an expert, safety (like education) is something that everyone thinks they are an expert in, because of their personal experience in having avoided accidents through "superb" personal driving skills (for example). In addition, attending a 2 day (no fail) short course or reading a parody of Reasons' "Swiss cheese" model, does not of itself qualify a person as an expert.
Reporters are those that report on events, interview witnesses, and relay what experts say and think. They should not pretend to be experts.
There are some excellent reporters (e.g. Matt Brown from the ABC), but there are a lot of reporters who haven't the background to understand, or can't be bothered to understand the intricacies of complex matters.
The brave new world has reporters that think they are experts because they once read a technical article, or spoke to an expert, and reporters that interview other reporters (saves on travel costs, and actually precludes needing to attend events).
Unfortunately, GT appear to have no expertise whatsoever in aviation safety, so IMO he should stick to REPORTING, not presenting judgements and opinions as an expert.
(For those with a sense of irony, I should say that I am not, however, an expert on the definitions of what constitutes either an expert or a reporter!).
The weekend Aus article by AK used most text space writing about what reporter GT thinks, with smaller comments reported from real experts, and with Nathan Safe getting only a small para quote at the end. This article is IMO a classic example of how not to write an article about aviation safety!
Oh well, maybe the media, editor of the Aus, AK and GT will read this, but probably not.
Seabreeze