Here’s a round-up of what the news media have done with this story…
- I sent a tip to the Boston Herald and never heard back from them.
- I sent a tip to the Boston Globe and never heard back from them.
- I sent a tip to WBUR (90.9 FM) and never heard back from them.
Not so promising, eh? Well, I led off with the bad stuff so you’d be more impressed by the rest…
- WBZ (Channel 4) interviewed me in person, published an article on their Web site and ran a story on the TV news.
- WCVB (Channel 5) interviewed me in person, published an article on their Web site and ran a story on the TV news (follow the article link for video as well).
- WHDH (Channel 7) interviewed me in person, published an article on their Web site, and ran the story on the TV news. I hear they also reran the story Tuesday morning (I don’t know whether they used the same tape or did a respin).
- WFXT (Channel 25) interviewed me in person and ran the story on the TV news (I think it was their lead story at 10pm).
- WOIO (Cleveland channel 19) ran it as a lead story on their home page and on the early TV news as well, and then ran an even better story on the late TV news.
- Fox 8 in Cleveland ran a lead story on their Web site and on the 10pm news.
- The Houston Chronicle ran a story.
- This is currently the most popular story on consumerist.com, with over 23,000 views.
- Lisa Meyer from WBZ 1030 AM interviewed me over the phone. I don’t know if/when they’ll run the story.
- I was interviewed by Jane Musgrave from the Palm Beach Post for a related article she is working on.
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You made it to FARK, too! Congratulations!
The channel 5 article states things rather unclearly:
“He had walked her all the way to the gate and watched her walk through the doors to her plane.”
Which is of course, not quite right, and has some of the commenters blaming you for not escorting her to the right gate.
WBZ radio did run the story. A parent of one of my son’s little league teammates heard it on the radio yesterday late afternoon, and I heard it myself on the radio this morning. I can’t find the story on their website though.
Cheers to you for your efforts- Glad to see someone putting the media to work!! As a parent I applaud your effort in keeping this from happening to other parents and children. Children flying by themselves is not a bad thing, as some are trying to imply. When the parents, airline, and grandparents all do their part it can be as safe as a family outing to Wal Mart. The airline did not do their part in this situation- even if it was a simple mistake– they still failed. You are right to ask the airline to refund the fare– you are right to expect some “appreciation” for the situation from the airline— and you are right to make noise so that this doesn’t happen again. I appreciate your efforts to keep this out of the courtroom and hope you have success in doing so.
I do have one issue with you and your commentators- don’t assume that all comments from Houston are empathetic to the airline—- it’s insulting . CO is very important to Houston, but it doesn’t mean they are always right — and there are a lot of people down here smart enough to know that. (In fact I’ve flown free a few times on CO for a few of their mistakes)– . So, don’t count all of us down here in Houston out against you and your family– a lot of us are pulling for you and hoping our “neighbor” does the right thing. Best wishes.
Wow. I already knew this, but you are definitely not a good person to have as an enemy. (BTW, my dad called me a little after 11 all excited b/c he saw you on the ch.5 news.) 🙂
Just saw the piece on Fox 25 News at 10. Seemed pretty accurate – can you believe it? A news organization actually quoted you correctly!
Comments on the Houston Chronicle article are *nasty*! You should get over there and give ‘em hell!
I’m sure it’s not worth the energy.
It’s probably a bunch of Continental employees who live in Houston and don’t like to see their employer trashed.
Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Continental pays people to post negative comments on articles that are critical of Continental.
In any case, considering that about half of the negative comments make it clear that they didn’t even take the trouble to understand what actually happened (e.g., the ones that criticize me for not walking her to gate, when in fact I did), it’s really not worth the effort to argue with them.
Comments on the Houston Chronicle article are *nasty*! You should get over there and give ’em hell!
You were on 7 News at 6, right around 6:08pm tonight. Nice long set, too. I have it on TiVo. Skimmed Fox News (thought my TiVo might burst into flames, but made it through with only a little smoke). No mention on Fox so far.
Wish I knew. Given that Continental’s HQ is located in Houston, it’s possible that they have a Google Alert (or the equivalent) set up to alert them about Continental news posted anywhere. Or perhaps you’re right that they aw it on Consumerist. I believe the reporter who wrote the article was their personal finance columnist, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she reads Consumerist.
So how did the Chronicle glom onto this? From Consumerist?
Give’em hell!