The Chicago Media have become as dependable as Storm-Center Severe Armageddon Update. Listen, nod and go about living an actual life. Read the papers . . . and ignore what you read.
Today, Chicago papers rally behind United CEO Oscar Munoz and portray the Aviation cops ( unarmed) as jack-booted thugs, instead of the corporate bouncers that they actually happen to be:
In an astonishing display of poor judgment captured on video by the cellphones of multiple passengers boarding a United Airlines flight to Louisville, an aviation police officer at O’Hare forcibly dragged a limp passenger down the aisle after bloodying his face when he refused to leave his seat.
By all accounts, this was not some unruly troublemaker who posed any threat to his fellow passengers. Mark Brown: Sun Times
OPINION, by all accounts, of Mark Brown, who makes a career out of cop-hating columns and enjoys bashing working stiffs caught in the act of doing their jobs. However, the account of Oscar Munoz differs wildly from Mark Brown's 'hard-hitting' ink:
According to the letter, ( by United CEO Munoz) which was obtained by CNBC, when crew members first approached the passenger to tell him to leave, he "raised his voice and refused to comply," and each time they asked again "he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent."
Crew members "were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight," Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger "continued to resist - running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials."
Munoz acknowledged to employees that the company could learn lessons from the incident, but said: "I emphatically stand behind all of you."
The 'viral video' of Chicago Aviation Cops dragging a person who booked a flight with United, in good faith, through the very narrow aluminum casing of a jetliner tells the world - Do not book a flight with United.
The media, especially the Chicago media, have always jumped into United Airlines corporate laps at 777 Wacker Drive and nuzzled its whiskers on the chins of CEO's for decades - from the oily Stephen Wolf to little Oscar Munoz.
United Airlines over- stuffed people into its aluminum casings, like anthropomorphic Kielbasa ready to be smoked by the good folks over by Bobaks what's by 53rd Street.
They over-book flights and then toss people off flights.
The doctor who was unceremoniously bumped, bruised and bloodied by the Chicago Aviation officers, booked his flight in 'good faith' - to use the favorite phrase of PI attorneys - and was randomly selected for de-plane, de-plane, de-plane.
I know many people who have also suffered at the hands of greedy airlines, but they were merely metaphorically 'bumped' from a flight and not bumped into the crumby seats in the tight aisles.
The focus of real news should be on Oscar who used to pack CSX freight trains and shelves of convenience stores with Pepsi and Coke, before packing people onto planes.
But, this is Chicago, home of United, the Tribune and the Sun Times and this is Mark Brown. If it is a law enforcer, the spotlight will stay upon him. If it is in support of Oscar Munoz, some lucky columnist will fly first class on United, I would imagine.
I hope the battered doctor calls, Joe Power of Power, Rogers & Smith, in very good faith, and tells his yarn. Oscar will know what bruising is all about.
You know, Bobak's sell great sausages and people never get bruised.
