IAGblog Podcasts

Commercial aviation does not like blogs much at all. Just this week we have yet another case where a company (Eclipse) has gone after a blog that has sometimes been critical of the company. We discuss this issue with Rob Mark from Jetwhine.com.

This follows an increasingly well worn path. Holly Hegeman's excellent Planebusiness blog is embroiled in legal issues with Mesa Airlines. Without naming names, there are other cases we are aware of where a large aerospace firm has tried to shut down a sometimes critical blog. This is likely to continue.

If you cannot control the information, don't fight it, embrace it. All bloggers want to do (most of the time) is tell a story. That means bloggers want content and companies can supply this content. If companies want to battle bloggers they will lose - the Internet is a massively disruptive technology which does not favor corporate views of information control. Bloggers are at the sharp end of using the Internet; if you doubt this ask Dan Rather. It really does not have to be this way.