So a friend of mine, Frank Koughan, wrote an article for Mother Jones last summer about how the FAA's abdication of its safety inspection role is putting passengers at risk..
This week he writes that his story has gotten results � just not the ones he expected. The FAA is trying to fire his source. Since talking with the press is not itself a violation of any rules, the FAA is instead claiming that the source took Frank to a repair facility under the pretense of conducting official business and identified him not as a reporter but as �an individual who was helping the FAA gather data on surveillance methodology.�
Unfortunately for the FAA, Frank is now telling the true story, complete with an uploaded audio recording of his source introducing him to the repair facility's director by saying, "Roger, this is Frank. He�s a reporter. He�s following me around doing an article on what aviation inspectors do." Of course, he told all this to the FAA investigators first, but they chose not to care. Unbelievably, they are sticking to their story in spite of the considerable evidence proving that it is false.
Can Frank save his source's job by going public? Only with the power of the blogosphere behind him!
So, probably not. But it's worth a shot.
