September PR Turbulence

I just got an email from AOPA president Craig Fuller; okay, so it was a mass email that everyone got.  Anyway, it talked of the turbulence that GA has suffered the past month.  It can all be summarized in a few statements.

• Hudson River Corridor debate - A tragic incident sparked a whirl-wind of investigations, committees and 'new plans' to make the corridor safe.  A great deal of it can be attributed to politicians' abilities to latch onto an issue and milk it for all it's worth.
• USA Today's Article - A very slanted and disgustingly misinforming article was published about federal money being spent at public airports.  Both AOPA representatives and congressman interviewed by USA Today stated their comments were severely edited and put in the wrong context.

As Mr. Fuller said, we survived and even slightly benefited in a way.  The attacks on GA have served to bring together industry partners and boost the GA Serves America campaign.  Our cries were heard on the hill and the Senate formed a GA Caucus that will work to promote aviation.

I find most surprising the reaction of the public after the USA Today debacle.  This is the first time in quite a long while when I've seen Aviation come out on top.  It's the first time after a situation such as this where people looked at the article and recognized it for what it was: a slanted attack. Instead of believing every word and grabbing their pitchforks, they listened to what knowledgeable parties had to say about the subject before forming their opinions.

I've always harbored a dis-like of the way media covers aviation related issues.  Most of the time, they haven't the slightest idea what they're talking about.  Their haste to be the first usually ends up causing bad information to be published.  It's amusing to find an error (such as a mis-named plane) and see how many articles contain the same error; they clearly got their info from the same wrong news release or unknowing reporter.

In the end, I advise everyone to look to aviation news outlets when they want to read the facts.  Sites like AvWeb.com and my own section of Examiner.com are always a good reliable place to start.