With reporters goading Milton on, he is still bound to say anything even innocuous that will be reported out of context, and in a way to inflame readers or those the quote is passed onto in a second hand fashion.

All he said when asked about the pilots was that he felt AC's current offer was more than generous and was not going to change just because a good profit had been achieved this quarter. [After 15-years of mostly losses...] What's inflamatory about that? The pilots themselves have said money isn't the real issue: they want to control AC's development of new routes and subsidiaries by not having a two tiered wage scale. Such wage scales are now a norm in the airline business if an established carrier is to compete effectively with new-starts, and not have to continuously face charges of unfair competition when it tries to compete with the likes of a WestJet that has none of the restrictive union agreements and overheads that an AC has.

Yes, the man still has problems communicating or controlling his statements, but it is not as bad as the press makes it out to be, or passes his words on to others and to us in print. My rule with the media is you can never win. If they are out to get you, they will get you and what you say makes little difference. They are the ones weilding the editing pencil (cursor, cut and paste function...) I wonder what newspaper could operate each day without having a single typo or mis-reported story? How many times have you read or heard a reporter say something you know is just plain incorrect? Are they ever corrected or repremanded for sloppy research or reporting? Very seldom. But if AC loses a bag, watch out!

Milton is quite correct to note that as a national institution, it is open season on AC. Few companies could face such scrutiny on their day-to-day operations without turning up similar horror stories. Now that Jane Stewart is soon to be moved from HRC, the media only have Robert Milton to focus on!