Odd Accusations by (Former) Washington Post Reporter
Reporter: Virgin Galactic was too eager (Video) CNN
“Former Washington Post reporter Joel Glenn Brenner says Virgin Galactic’s technology did not match their enthusiasm.”
“And I will tell you this as well, that this engine that exploded today, even if they had had a successful flight, and even if they had not stolen my friend’s life, OK… So, I am here to say that they took this pilot’s life, and this engine still would not have gotten customers to space.”
Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Crashes, Transcript, CBB
Keith’s note: This is tantamount to accusing Virgin Galactic of some very serious crimes. Its quite clear from this interview on the day of the accident that Joel Glenn Brenner really hates Virgin Galactic. But the Washington Post thinks its just fine that she “report” on this accident after revealing her overt bias to millions. At a minimum, shouldn’t the Washington Post put links and references up to her other comments? Shouldn’t Brenner explain them to the Post’s readers? Just wondering. What was just as bizarre was how CNN anchors Brooke Baldwin and Richard Quest allowed her to rant about herself – and her unsubstantiated accusations.
Data should be plentiful in explosion of SpaceShipTwo, By Drew Harwell and Joel Glenn Brenner, Washington Post
I prefer to be generous and assume that, as a friend of Mr Brenner evidently died in the crash, he was upset and speaking and later writing from emotion rather than logic and journalistic sense.
The Washington Post, like the New York Times and other papers, is usually very, very good at making sure that reporters with a personal bias do not “report” and, if, for some reason they do, that they post disclaimers or notes attesting to the nature of any possible bias. That is totally lacking here.
I’m glad you posted this as I wondered about Brenner’s bias after hearing her emotional comments. What is Brenner’s experience in reporting aerospace news?
Joel Brenner is a former Washington Post reporter, now an author, and she been embedded with the Scaled team during the X-Prize days. it appears she had maintained friendships with those working on SpaceShipOne / SpaceShipTwo.
Here is her LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/pub…
Joel is woman and this is the transcript from her on-air CNN interview shortly after the accident which I was listening to. There is no doubt she was grieving the loss of a friend, but as a former longtime Washington Post reporter she must have known what her words would mean being broadcast live on CNN to millions of viewers.
The WaPo ombudsman should step in immediately and at the very least make the public aware that the reporter had a personal relationship with the co-pilot. That’s the least. If they are proactive, and they should be, they should also reassign Ms. Brenner away from this story, if for no other reason that she jumped to a conclusion that the hybrid engine exploded when the facts known so far certainly do not support that, and for her to assign blame seriously so early in the investigation raises questions of her impartiality toward Virgin Galactic and Scaled.
It seems like she was really just striking out emotionally there. If not, what a jerk. Yes, not impartial at all, and shouldn’t be reporting on this.
I wonder why a person so close to the company would talk about the engine repeatedly, as if there had been concern about or discussion of the engine beforehand. As it is turning out we are learning it most likely wasn’t the engine.
Now there’s repeated speculation about pilot error because a lock was pulled. This could have been SOP, a task perform X seconds before deployment. Or not. Just speculation.