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Comment by TheBlight | Hacker News Reader

I have no idea what's going on but it feels to me like this somewhat recent popular media anti-Boeing campaign isn't strictly organic.

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They had a door blow off an airplane mid flight - that'll get the press's attention. Whether or not they're a worse goat rodeo than the average modern American multinational is up for debate, but they're certainly enough of one to sustain this kind of press naturally, and especially for a company that builds half the commercial airliners in the US. Plane crashes get clicks.

Feels pretty organic to me. Things falling off planes and whistleblowers alleging coverup generate organic interest

Maybe it is to some extent but I'm seeing a more general pattern wrt commercial air travel coverage. There's the turbulence stories and the "near collision" stories. It's possible every aspect of the air travel system is breaking down in real-time I suppose. But it's also possible there is some sort of agenda at work and its promoters are leveraging anything they can find.

The only ones I can see who would stand to win in such a conspiracy would be Airbus, but they were already winning with or without Boeing.

I don't know that a canonical conspiracy is required. I could imagine an emergent symbiosis of different parties. Eg. The media likes clicks and some NGOs don't like air travel. I'm not saying this is the case just that it might be slightly more complex than what it appears on face.

> it's also possible there is some sort of agenda at work

Please tell us more.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40547368

Things falling off planes just as we’re starting to forget the terror rollercoasters to which they subjected hundreds of people before their death. Organic indeed.

I'd guess no. Boeing has a poor reputation in some circles, hell I changed the type of engineering I pursued in school because Boeing was a major employer

when whistleblowers start dying in not strictly organic ways the media tends to come down pretty hard on behavior like that

Is there evidence any of these deaths were the result of foul play?

So you’re willing to entertain a conspiracy theory for why the media would be fixated on Boeing, a storied company once one of the prides of American engineering that’s now fallen into transparent disrepair that’s led to airplanes, the things 2 million of us entrust our lives to every day, failing dramatically, but when a whistleblower commits suicide while testifying to congress about said company, that’s just a normal Saturday to you?

I don't think discussion will be productive if we're not capable of temporarily setting aside emotion.

I'll ask more plainly for them then - why is negative news about a company with high publicity safety failures more suspicious to you than the death of a whistleblower testifying against said company, especially since they evidently recently told a friend 'if I die it wasn't suicide'?

If you’re looking for a productive discussion, then your approach is the problem.

Demanding proof, while handwaving away calls for evidence for your own position rightly results in an incredulous reaction.

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