Spin
June 9th, 2008
“Over the course of the past year, Boeing has walked right up to the delicate line that divides spin from plain dishonesty.”
That’s the blunt assessment of a publication that was once synonymous with quintessential reporting in all matters of aviation and aerospace. To somehow “trivialise” the design, manufacture, assembly and associated setbacks in the learning curve of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner into this outlandish and outright falsified statement beggars belief.
Perhaps the unnamed writer at Flight Global had a memory lapse and forgot such minuscule detail that as a publicly traded company, Boeing has a legal obligation with regard to the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission when providing its own statements and forward looking guidance.
Further, the fact that not a single Wall Street or any other analyst has ever come out and said that Boeing has been “dishonest” serves only to remind us that in the pursuit for information from the company, whether by direct approach or by clandestine methods, there are people and organisations that will stop at nothing to extract what they can in the delirious quest for web ratings.
Image courtesy of Boeing
Yes, analysts have been critical that Boeing has twice failed to meet its own revised targets on the 787, but that is by no means any indication that they believed the company lied or deliberately deceived anyone or set out to do so, whether by tacit or explicit acceptance of any guidance offered.
Critically, the two sets of people whom Boeing does owe and provides information to is a responsibility that the company has never shied away from.
Whether we like it or not, customers have been kept in the loop. If that means after news of a certain delay, so be it. That’s not being “dishonest” - that’s informing the customer based on changes in circumstances. The same applies to investors in the company too.
The only thing dishonest is the attitude displayed in the article that is better off not being linked here.
Spin on that, I say.
Sphere: Related ContentEntry Filed under: Air Transport, Air Travel, Airlines, Airplane, Airplane Order, Airplanes, Airport, Airports, Aviation, Boeing, Boeing 787, Dreamliner, Dreamliner First Flight, Travel
6 Comments Add your own
1. Doug McVitie | June 9th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Considering the particularly Gallic combination of reticence and arrogant disregard with which Airbus senior management treated Emirates in relation to informing them of the various A380 delays in 2006 and 2007, this anonymous ‘FlightGlobal’ comment smacks of belated deflection. Boeing is beholden to the SEC, as FleetBuzz accurately points out here, while Airbus truly is beholden only to its reflection in the boardroom mirror.
2. Go-ing | June 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Is the link below the article you refer to?
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/05/27/224198/comment-boeings-787-spin-machine-reverses-course.html
3. Jackson | June 9th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I’ve no idea what was told to its customers or major shareholders but the press briefs were public and inaccurate and will have affected the stock market.
If Boeing wasn’t spinning or being dishonest then it was being incompetent. Take your pick.
4. marcus | June 9th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Incompetent is a fair word, but that is still eons away from being labeled a liar, which, by implication what Flight International’s article wrongly suggests.
5. keesje | June 10th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I think there has frequently been a gab between what Boeing told the world and what was happening at the same time.
Boeing acknowledged the problem of credibility.
Carson Jan 16th : “I know our credibility is being tested on this program, and it is up to us to deliver on what we say we will do,” Carson said. “We are committed to executing this schedule and delivering on what we have promised. We will pass this test.”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/347593_dreamliner17.html
And on the sensitive case of dishonesty; be honest: Boeing didn’t launch their ethics campagne for nothing..
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=boeing+ethics+scandal&vc=&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip=NL
6. keesje | June 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Sloan told reporters during a meeting in Seattle last week that all six surveillance planes would be delivered in 2009. The additional delay couldn’t be revealed last week because Boeing wanted to tell employees first, he said Tuesday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-wed-boeing-wedgetail-delay-jun11,0,86584.story
IMO it is not surprizing the press increasingl looking for additional sources, including forums to check the reality factor of official Boeing announcements. They hit their noses a few times too often lately.
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