Monday, August 01, 2005
“A lie can fly halfway around the world..."
"...while the truth is still doing the checklist” – (with apologies to Mark Twain.)
The latest to parrot the FAA line on the Flight Service contract is the conservative Heritage Foundation. You can read their comments here. Note that they are identical to what the AOPA has said, as well as Congressman Knollenberg during floor debate in the House, as well as anyplace else the discussion occurs. This leads one to conclude that the FAA is playing the same three-note samba for all it’s worth (safety, savings, controller-friendly) because they have nothing else.
Of course, all this constant repeating of the same phrases can lead to over-use, especially as more and more people realize the promises are empty. That creates a rhetorical opening than can be leveraged to great advantage.
However, NAATS (the controller’s union) has been unforgivably slow to take on the public relations challenge, attempting to slog through this fight without a ‘rapid response team’ to rush the counter arguments whenever this verbal charade pops up. But the rank-and-file controllers may be helping to take up the slack. Already a number of e-mails have been sent to the Heritage Foundation web site where their story appeared. I expect more in the next couple of days. We’ll be watching to see if an addendum is published.
UPDATE: It turns out that the web site on which the article appeared is not associated with the Heritage Foundation, although the article’s author is indeed that organization’s President, Mr. Ed Feulner. The web site itself, theconservativevoice.com, is a sole proprietorship run by one Nathan Tabor, a fine fellow, judging by our e-mail exchanges. I apologize to the reader and him for any confusion.
The latest to parrot the FAA line on the Flight Service contract is the conservative Heritage Foundation. You can read their comments here. Note that they are identical to what the AOPA has said, as well as Congressman Knollenberg during floor debate in the House, as well as anyplace else the discussion occurs. This leads one to conclude that the FAA is playing the same three-note samba for all it’s worth (safety, savings, controller-friendly) because they have nothing else.
Of course, all this constant repeating of the same phrases can lead to over-use, especially as more and more people realize the promises are empty. That creates a rhetorical opening than can be leveraged to great advantage.
However, NAATS (the controller’s union) has been unforgivably slow to take on the public relations challenge, attempting to slog through this fight without a ‘rapid response team’ to rush the counter arguments whenever this verbal charade pops up. But the rank-and-file controllers may be helping to take up the slack. Already a number of e-mails have been sent to the Heritage Foundation web site where their story appeared. I expect more in the next couple of days. We’ll be watching to see if an addendum is published.
UPDATE: It turns out that the web site on which the article appeared is not associated with the Heritage Foundation, although the article’s author is indeed that organization’s President, Mr. Ed Feulner. The web site itself, theconservativevoice.com, is a sole proprietorship run by one Nathan Tabor, a fine fellow, judging by our e-mail exchanges. I apologize to the reader and him for any confusion.
# posted by Skywise @ 9:21 PM 
