Monday’s “OMG” social media news story was about security personnel dragging a passenger off a United Airlines flight in Chicago. The passenger, Dr. David Dao, refused to leave the plane when asked and was violently removed by aviation police.
Tuesday’s “OMG” story is the micro-analysis of Dr. Dao’s life by multiple newspapers and online media outlets. Apparently that’s okay, because he’s now some type of celebrity? Please.
From TMZ:
From Heavy.com – more extreme vetting than many political candidates:
From Hollywood Life:
C’mon. Pictures of family members who weren’t even aboard the flight?
There are more sordid details in the stories, and I am not going to repeat them here because THEY ARE IRRELEVANT. Should Dr. Dao pursue civil action against the aviation police and United, I’m sure attorneys on both sides will be interested in all of those details – but they are none of our business, and have nothing to do with what happened Sunday.
If the gossip sites were even-handed about the situation, they would write a story like this:
#BREAKING United Airlines has troubled past, ties to 9/11 attacks
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) April 11, 2017
But that wouldn’t bring the same number of clicks.
If you’re interested in reading something that discusses government regulations and airline policies that led to this incident and uses facts and logic, this is a good one:
As for the other coverage, the message all of us regular people should hear loud and clear is – do not do anything remotely controversial that might end up on social media, or you might get the Dao treatment.
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