Rusty Saber: headlines full of planes, propaganda and profits

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Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.|ret||ret||tab|

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Some news items fall under the category of "stuff serious enough to grab the attention of an editor," thus they are destined for banner headlines. However, there are less serious topics, but they, too, are worthy of some notice.|ret||ret||tab|

The Rusty Saber has created news categories and has selected the stories that best fit into those categories. If you buy the premise, I have a column; if not, this is it.|ret||ret||tab|

This category requires a slight misquote of Abraham Lincoln: The "You can't tax all of the people all of the time" category. The City Council of Whittier, Alaska, imposed a tax of $1 per tourist coming ashore from cruise ships. An important part of this story is that Whittier's economy is fueled by tourist dollars spent in shops and restaurants. |ret||ret||tab|

The Princess Cruise Lines people said that rather than pay $1 tax on each passenger going ashore, they would drop Whittier as a port of call. Somebody on the Whittier City Council had either a dab of business sense or at least a lick of common sense, perhaps both. The council voted unanimously to drop the tax. Whereupon, Princess Cruises announced it will return to Whittier in 2004. All's well that ends well. |ret||ret||tab|

Next is the winner in "The Friendly Skies may be a little too friendly" category. |ret||ret||tab|

You may have heard about this story. Two male (an important part of the story) Southwest Airlines pilots were fired because they both (another important tidbit) stripped down to their underwear in the cockpit of the airplane they were flying. That's right. While the passengers assumed that two professional and distinguished airmen were at the controls, the pilots were in their near-nothings doing heavens knows what.|ret||ret||tab|

The pilot's story is that there was some spilled coffee. I don't know about you, but I have never spilled coffee on me to need to take off all my clothes.|ret||ret||tab|

Assuming one did spill an unknown amount of coffee on himself, why did the other pilot join the frivolity? Since both plan to appeal the dismissal, new facts may be uncovered that's an intended pun.|ret||ret||tab|

This one is tops in the "The pot dares to call the kettle black" category. Greg Dyke, head of the government-owned British Broadcasting Company, has severely criticized American TV networks for failing to be impartial in reporting on the war in Iraq. Say what? Where is it written that the media of a country at war is supposed to be impartial? |ret||ret||tab|

I'm trying to imagine the BBC during World War II giving Hitler equal time. Sorry, no image appears in my mind's eye. |ret||ret||tab|

The reason this story comes in first is that I listened to some BBC radio war reports on National Public Radio. Although there were British troops fighting, the reports by the BBC that I heard were so "partial" toward Iraq that I understand why some pundit labeled the BBC as the "Baghdad Broadcasting Company."|ret||ret||tab|

"Don't bite too hard the hand that feeds you" is the category for this item. |ret||ret||tab|

An Associated Press article recently reported concern by Major League Baseball owners about the dramatic decline in attendance to games this season. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves ballplayer, is quoted as saying: "I just think ticket prices have gotten so outlandish, it's tough for a family of four to come watch their team play ... something has to be done." |ret||ret||tab|

By the way, Chipper's total contract is for $90 million. Is it possible that the "something that has to be done" involves players' multimillion-dollar salaries? |ret||ret||tab|

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