Succinctly put, Hillico.
BEagle - As I said, I did hope you would not take my words amiss, yet you seem determined otherwise. That's your crime. It's also your punishment.
Smoketoomuch - You are right...a national audience does need just one focus. Truth is they're too dumb, disinterested, or too short of time to concentrate on more. Sad, but true. Prime reason is they don't give a damn, at least, not so long as they make it to Alicante and back once a year on their hols.
Why not try and educate them? Well again, if they'd listen, or were interested, journalists would, Unfortunately countless tests have shown a national audience care just long enough to turn the page, or flip channels, and this happens double quick just as soon as anything techie is mentioned. To a lesser extent this is even true in aviation journals. People just don't have the time to stop and smell the avtur anymore, believe me! Again, sad, but true.
Kalium Chloride - I do hope you will reconsider whatever it was that prompted you to consider posting. All contributions and criticism are worthwhile - assuming they're constructive and not just more 'gutter journalism' remarks, of course.
Mike J - Journalists cannot be expected to understand every subject they are required to cover - no more than you or I can be expected to know some or even all of the London Underground, ship scheduling, or any other aspect of a single industry. And this presumes we are only the transport correspondent. They bother because they have a job to do, pure and simple. Not perfect everyone agrees, but the alternative is a newspaper cover price no one is prepared to pay.
In short, society gets the media it deserves - or at least is prepared to pay for.
Oh, and BEagle. Yes I do claim to be a journalist. I have 19 years experience, so I hope all here will consider me qualified to speak on the subject.
By the way, you don't substantiate your first statement in your last post. I am interested to know how this will happen given you, me, the AAIB, the CAA, Korean Air, probably most ppruners, and almost certainly everyone else in aviation either understand or have it in their means to understand what happened, as you describe. Or do you believe the engineers concerned will be fired by their bosses over a single 'outrageous' BBC TV report?
You can't have it both ways, you know.
Still, just so long as you're keeping an open mind.
Constructively
Dan
Edited for a couple of typos
Last edited by Dantruck; 29th Jul 2003 at 07:17.