Time Magazine Article "What's causing ATC delays"

Hey all - I'm mostly a lurker but felt compelled to comment on this.

Time Magazine recently had an incredibly asinine piece on "What's
causing flight delays." In it the writer blames the old ATC system,
but barely gives word to busy hub airports, overscheduled/canceled
flights, and a host of other LOCAL AIRPORT and AIRLINE problems that
are really to blame. And of course adding a one line jab about GA.

Plus - the animation showing a plane being bounced around the sky like
a pinball is hilarious, and just plane incorrect.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...653304,00.html

I wrote a rebuttal on my blog: Would love any comments/corrections or
opinions

http://www.futuregringo.com/index.ph...travel-delays/

Summary: Instead of whining about zig zag patterns in the sky we
should invest the money in people, resources (such as ground radar,)
and improvements in the LOCAL airport environments at our largest
hubs. The TOWER is where air traffic controllers are overworked,
overtaxed, and because of this have increased chances of errors. Why
are people being told, or sold, a false worry about the LEAST
problematic and least dangerous part of our ATC system?

Just another example of why the news media have lost the
respect of the American people. Will they ever wake up?






On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:48:11 -0700, james wrote:

Hey all - I'm mostly a lurker but felt compelled to comment on this.

Time Magazine recently had an incredibly asinine piece on "What's
causing flight delays." In it the writer blames the old ATC system,
but barely gives word to busy hub airports, overscheduled/canceled
flights, and a host of other LOCAL AIRPORT and AIRLINE problems that
are really to blame. And of course adding a one line jab about GA.

"muzzy" wrote in message
...
Just another example of why the news media have lost the
respect of the American people. Will they ever wake up?


Not likely, but remember that in their world, truth is relative and
subjective -- they see nothing wrong.

The word is: insolence.

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"muzzy" wrote in message
Just another example of why the news media have lost the
respect of the American people. Will they ever wake up?

At the risk of going totally off-topic, at what point has the news media had
the respect of the American people?

Having said that, I expect a much greater degree of accuracy and research
from the weekly news magazines than I would the average daily newspaper.
Daily reporters face pretty fierce deadlines for which it's often impossible
to check every fact and detail, but when you're a major international news
magazine, that excuse isn't valid.

-c

"Gattman" wrote in message
...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"muzzy" wrote in message
Just another example of why the news media have lost the
respect of the American people. Will they ever wake up?

At the risk of going totally off-topic, at what point has the news media
had the respect of the American people?

Up until the 80's when alternative media came into being and the blatent
dishonesty, hypocrisy and slovenlyness became known.


Having said that, I expect a much greater degree of accuracy and research
from the weekly news magazines than I would the average daily newspaper.

Like Newsweek or Time? False expectation, I'm afraid.

Daily reporters face pretty fierce deadlines for which it's often
impossible to check every fact and detail, but when you're a major
international news magazine, that excuse isn't valid.

The issue isn't accuracy/fact checking, but deliberate distortion. For so
long the MSM had no competition and thus virtually no one to answer to.

An America with short attention spans, poor memory, and a dearth of critical
thinking skills hasn't helped to keep them on their toes, either.

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

At the risk of going totally off-topic, at what point has the news media
had the respect of the American people?

Up until the 80's when alternative media came into being and the blatent
dishonesty, hypocrisy and slovenlyness became known.

Well, I have to disagree somewhat because public issues with the media go
back at least to the coverage of Vietnam. Can't remember how it faired
during World War II, but previous to that the respect factor would have more
to do with the cluefullness (lack thereof) of the public than the accuracy
of the media (lack thereof.) My point is that if you study the history of
mass media in the United States you won't find a period in which they were
particularly respected except by their own readers. Exceptions going back
to the 19th century include The Oregonian, The Chigaco Tribune and the New
York Times, but they weren't without sin either.

Recall Abraham Lincoln's marginally-constitutional imprisonment of several
critical publishers.

An America with short attention spans, poor memory, and a dearth of
critical thinking skills hasn't helped to keep them on their toes,
either.

Unfortunately, I can't disagree. I studied Journalism at OSU under an
two-time Pulizer prize winner who required all J students to have a science
minor because he was tired of hearing about bigfoot, killer bees, Alar and
other cyclical and nonsensical media phenomena. (My senior thesis was to
interpret scientific data on the dietary benefits of oat fiber versus wheat
bran, back when everybody was reporting that one or the other prevented hear
disease. Turns out there's not a signifcant difference.)

We live and will always live in a world where some amount of people believe
whatever they read. The only variable is what they choose to read, whether
it's USA Today, the Wall Street Journal or Moron.org

-c

On Aug 30, 10:48 am, james wrote:
Hey all - I'm mostly a lurker but felt compelled to comment on this.

Time Magazine recently had an incredibly asinine piece on "What's
causing flight delays." In it the writer blames the old ATC system,
but barely gives word to busy hub airports, overscheduled/canceled
flights, and a host of other LOCAL AIRPORT and AIRLINE problems that
are really to blame. And of course adding a one line jab about GA.

Plus - the animation showing a plane being bounced around the sky like
a pinball is hilarious, and just plane incorrect.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...653304,00.html

I wrote a rebuttal on my blog: Would love any comments/corrections or
opinions

http://www.futuregringo.com/index.ph...agazine-studie...

Summary: Instead of whining about zig zag patterns in the sky we
should invest the money in people, resources (such as ground radar,)
and improvements in the LOCAL airport environments at our largest
hubs. The TOWER is where air traffic controllers are overworked,
overtaxed, and because of this have increased chances of errors. Why
are people being told, or sold, a false worry about the LEAST
problematic and least dangerous part of our ATC system?


"and just plane incorrect."

Oh and that was a typo not an intended pun.

On Aug 30, 12:48 pm, james wrote:
[...]
http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...653304,00.html

I wrote a rebuttal on my blog: Would love any comments/corrections or
opinions

http://www.futuregringo.com/index.ph...agazine-studie...
[...]

"Adaptive Compression," new component of ETMS, helps somewhat by
scanning for slots that are freed due to delays or cancellations. It
was deployed operationally in March. The Airspace Flow Program is
designed to deal with FCAs.

Regards,
Jon

A famous newspaperman on newspapers:

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the
newspaper, you are misinformed."
- Mark Twain

"It has become a sarcastic proverb that a thing must be true if you saw it
in a newspaper. That is the opinion intelligent people have of that lying
vehicle in a nutshell. But the trouble is that the stupid people - who
constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations -
do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a
newspaper, and there is where the harm lies."
- Mark Twain in his "License of the Press" speech.

"The old saw says, 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Right. Still, when there is
much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it."
- Mark Twain

"I am personally acquainted with hundreds of journalists, and the opinion
of the majority of them would not be worth tuppence in private, but when
they speak in print it is the newspaper that is talking (the pygmy scribe
is not visible) and then their utterances shake the community like the
thunders of prophecy."
- Mark Twain speech, Feb. 1873

"Our papers have one peculiarity - it is American - their irreverence ...
They are irreverent toward pretty much everything, but where they laugh one
good king to death, they laugh a thousand cruel and infamous shams and
superstitions into the grave, and the account is squared. Irreverence is
the champion of liberty and its only sure defense."
- Mark Twain's Notebook

"Unassailable certainty is the thing that gives a newspaper the firmest and
most valuable reputation."
- Mark Twain's "Roughing It"

"The devil's aversion to holy water is a light matter compared with a
despot's dread of a newspaper that laughs."
- "The American Press," first printed in Mark Twain: Press Critic,
University of California, 2003.

And the source for all those quotes (and more) came from:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Newspaper.html

Quick top-post just to say thanks for the great reading material, Jim!


"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .
A famous newspaperman on newspapers:

"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the
newspaper, you are misinformed."
- Mark Twain

"It has become a sarcastic proverb that a thing must be true if you saw it
in a newspaper. That is the opinion intelligent people have of that lying
vehicle in a nutshell. But the trouble is that the stupid people - who
constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations -
do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a
newspaper, and there is where the harm lies."
- Mark Twain in his "License of the Press" speech.

"The old saw says, 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Right. Still, when there is
much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it."
- Mark Twain

"I am personally acquainted with hundreds of journalists, and the opinion
of the majority of them would not be worth tuppence in private, but when
they speak in print it is the newspaper that is talking (the pygmy scribe
is not visible) and then their utterances shake the community like the
thunders of prophecy."
- Mark Twain speech, Feb. 1873

"Our papers have one peculiarity - it is American - their irreverence ...
They are irreverent toward pretty much everything, but where they laugh
one
good king to death, they laugh a thousand cruel and infamous shams and
superstitions into the grave, and the account is squared. Irreverence is
the champion of liberty and its only sure defense."
- Mark Twain's Notebook

"Unassailable certainty is the thing that gives a newspaper the firmest
and
most valuable reputation."
- Mark Twain's "Roughing It"

"The devil's aversion to holy water is a light matter compared with a
despot's dread of a newspaper that laughs."
- "The American Press," first printed in Mark Twain: Press Critic,
University of California, 2003.

And the source for all those quotes (and more) came from:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Newspaper.html