In a post-truth world where “fake news” abounds, I became ever-more jaded yesterday after a startling revelation concerning an American Airlines incident in Chicago.
On Monday, I wrote a story entitled After AA Cancels Her Flight, Woman Left In Wheelchair Overnight At O’Hare Airport.
At the time, the narrative was that Olimpia Warsaw was left sitting in a wheelchair overnight at Chicago O’Hare Airport after her flight was cancelled and the porter went home for the night. Warsaw was forced to ask a random passenger to help her in the bathroom and left alone all night.
AA responded with an immediate apology, taking responsibility for the incident and offering a full refund plus compensation.
But at least one person at American Airlines did their homework. By looking deeper into the allegations and the security camera footage taken that night, a new narrative emerged. As the Washington Post reported:
A timeline released by the airline shows that a representative from the contractor assigned to take care of Warsaw spoke with Coltea [her son] at least twice. Airline officials said records show that Coltea rebooked his mother on a flight leaving Saturday afternoon and that he said he would send someone to pick her up at the airport.
The airline said that after a review of closed-circuit television footage it determined that: “Ms. Warsaw was dropped off in the terminal at 12:30 a.m. CT on Dec. 1, and a family member arrived at the airport to pick her up at 1:13 a.m. CT.”
Warsaw was escorted to a wheelchair waiting area located on the upper level of the airport. Once there, video footage shows Warsaw twice using a walker to go outside to smoke a cigarette before being met by a woman. The woman pushes Warsaw toward the door but then stops to take a cellphone picture of Warsaw sitting in the wheelchair. The woman then walks away and returns two minutes later. The video shows she flagged down a police officer, with whom she spoke briefly. The woman then wheeled Warsaw to a waiting SUV, where a man is waiting. The group then left the airport.
Of course Warsaw and her family are no longer responding to media requests…
The Death of Truth
This story demonstrates how quick (gullible, perhaps) we are to believe a story. In the post-Dao world, I don’t blame American Airlines for quickly issuing an apology, but wow…this incident also so clearly demonstrates that humans, myself included, often lack discernment.
Yesterday, I wrote about a former NBA player suing United Airlines because of a “race baiting” flight attendant. While I never thought this lawsuit had legal traction, I find myself doubting the very story itself today. That’s what fake news does: it dulls your senses, positioning you to make choices based upon emotions rather than facts. How can you make a decision based upon facts when the facts themselves are fabricated or untrustworthy? How can you discern what is true and false when you cannot discern if the news is even being reported accurately?
But then I think of my own incident onboard United…thrown off a plane for taking a picture. There was no other side: the story was just as bad as I reported it and the flight attendant lied to get me off that plane. And while skepticism is often helpful, I refuse to travel down the postmodern path that denies objective truth.
On a personal note, I don’t regret covering the incident in the manner in which I did. After AA verified it happened, I had no reason to doubt its authenticity. But you can bet I will next time, even if I still write about it. Stories like this, even fabricated ones, present an opportunity to remind families of the risk of leaving older loved ones alone when traveling. Even if a flight appears on-time, delays often happen once everyone is onboard and a mechanical issue is discovered or ATC delay issued.
Thus, this story was helpful in giving a platform to the perils of leaving older travelers alone. But this family owes American Airlines a huge apology. I hope AA also re-charges Warsaw for her ticket.
CONCLUSION
Tragically, we live in a world where emotional appeals holds greater sway than objective facts. We also live in a world in which the one who gets her story out first typically prevails. Let’s all be a little more discerning this day.
image: American Airlines
The truth, suffers when a society loses it’s moral compass. This is quite evident in 2018. The lack of people telling the truth is just symptomatic of where we are headed as a culture.
Well, we do not have to look too far about a chronic lier, we are currently has a chronic lier running the greatest on earth.
Wrong. See that’s just you believing the fake news void of all discernment. Thank you for proving Matthew’s point.
No, not wrong, Kami, it’s spot on. There you go belong believing the liar in chief, and that is exactly what this nation is stuck with the lying buffoon and in a crisis.
Speaking of lying presidents……..
“I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky”.
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”.
Remember those?
Politicians lie in both small and big ways. This is why discernment (as Mathew states) is vital.
Well ,some can never convince a true liberal socialist to tell the truth. They just spew forth hatred and say things for spite because they can’t believe Hillary Clinton lost by a landslide. Just goes to show how bad some on the other side truly are. How often so we side Republicans spewing forth all the garbage you all do? That speaks volumes.
After all, Obama told more lies than anyone I can remember.
Talking about a liar in chief and a buffoon; let’s look at Obama. What a sick joke he played on our country time after time.
at least the “liar” can spell
Hahahhahhahhaha, oh that’s a good one. Really?! Have you read any tweets of @realdonaldtrump? While spelling is certainly not the worst skill he has with the English language, he still has room for improvement there.
Why d9nt you leave the President out of this
And how would you know that first hand. As I think you’re a chronic liar.
Liar liar pants on fire that ended that string kiddos
We lost it a long time ago. I think the canary in the coalmine was our tolerance of perjury by our chief law enforcement officer in the 1990s. It has been all downhill from there.
Southwest cancelled an 9:40 AM plane to Denver due to ice on field; OK I am 88 years old. I understand. waited at platform; ice gone 12:00 noon. no planes for me; finally my son Adam found plane at 6:00 PM for Las Vegas with a connecting flight to Denver and spoke to platform attendant who had told me there were no more flights that day from Oakland.
Can yon believe the stupidity of the platform attendant who could not find the flight leaving at 6:00 PM to get me to Denver; I did arrive exhausted at 11PM and of course they could not find my luggage until the following day and delivered to Denver home at 10PM.
Did Southwest offer me a meal, a flight, anything?? NO I sat in the damned chair for hours and hours. And this is a true story. call me if you don’t believe me. See Below
Society lost its moral compass? That’s a pretty broad condemnation of America and I’m not so pessimistic. The airline industry has always suffered from rip off artists, ranging from FRANK W ABAGNALE to the fictional Character played by Helen Hayes in Airport. This isn’t anything new, really.
@ Matthew — I was sure that this post was about Lying Imbecile Donald Trump.
Think that’s your issue
Always about Trump Libtard?
No, it’s about the lying POS Hussein Obama.
Really ?
P
YOU are too unbelievable. After all of the “fake news” and lying by the politicians of BOTH stripes. You take from this article that the writer is posting a backhanded swipe at President Trump. This artiicle, as I read it was about a woman in Chicago trying to scam an airline for a refund she was definitely not entitled to. And your insane butt reads it as a swipe against the President. How stupid can you be? obamler lied on many occasions and he even admitted he lied INTENTIONALLY. I, personally do not care (to a point) WHAT a person SAYS. I want results and that is what President Trump is delivering. Lower taxes, lower unemployment, the highest GDP in many decades. Posts like yours is what you write when you make up what you post or get all of your “news” spun from sources that is ready to “spin” the facts whenever it suits them.
Sorry if it sounds like I’m piling on, but that’s because I kind of am.
The reality is, this is what happens when you choose to post tabloid-esque stories like this. You’re going to get burned on occasion. And you’re going to look very, very silly when that happens. It’s why I really wish you would reconsider your decision to keep posting these types of stories. If your desire truly is to remind people of the dangers of delays, surely there are better ways to do it.
I was thinking nearly the same as MeanMoesh. Additionally, the real problem today is not the abundance of liars and cheats, they’ve always existed in great numbers, but rather by the rise of an insatiable citizen-media addicted to clicks above all else, truth included. The liars and cheats have figured out how to use this media as stooges in the commital of these cons. The media are complicit since the truth does not feed their addiction to clicks.
That fake news is making us doubt every story is an excellent thing. The problem isn’t fake news or lies (those have both been around forever). the problem is how quick people are to believe anything. What’s worse, is the credibility give to people who we know nothing about. Nobody ever should have believed the AA story before it was investigated. Seriously, some random person nobody knows anything about tells a story and we all take it like it’s the truth handed down from the mount. That’s how it is time and time again. Don’t look at story, look at the source, their motivation for posting the story and the proof (some unheard-of person’s word with no accountability is not proof!). I hope that all the fake news continues to take away peoples’ belief in a story just because it’s posted.
Interesting…but I doubted the story the moment I read it. Frankly, I’m dumbfounded that people still believe anything coming from the click-bate headline business. Why
A reasonable attempt to vet and verify, rather than ‘get a story out firsts’ might just prevent such manipulation of the masses. Or is that what we want to do!
Clearly this story shows just how low people will go out of greed. Putting a senior citizen in the spotlight,just to bilk a mega corporation out of some money. Lie cheat steal… this is the new norm of Amerika. Making America GreedyAgain.
What ever happened to independently verifying the facts? News companies are under such pressure to report the news instantaneously that it leaves no time for real fact checking. All Matthew did was regurgitate what AA told him and then regurgitated the photo. To independently verify this story all it would of taken is to sit down with AA and review the video and talk to a few people. This would have also allowed a balanced story, getting both sides. Given Matthew may not have been able or even invited by AA to do this would mean the story can’t be independently verified and therefore not news worthy. Matthew’s list of credentials is impressive but no where does it say he attended a journalism school. The class on “Independent Verification 101” is probably taught in the first semester. Being a highly trained professional myself doesn’t mean I can write or do brain surgery. Good old fashioned education never hurts and unfortunately all the author did was contribute to the dumbing down of the public.
I agree 100%. In addition, the original (incorrect) story still shows as a “related story” to this article.
Spot on! This is the reason for fake news; fake journalists and/or the biased journalists that use their tools to sway their readers without actual FACTS! This country’s media is never to be trusted no matter what your political affiliations. Wake up America and do your own fact checking. It’s what the media has forced us to do because they are not ethical or TRUTHFUL. They prefer to be lazy and biased.
Mathew, maybe from here on, you might consider doing some actual research before writing an article. It seems to me talking to a witness, or viewing security footage might be some basic investigative skills you should look into. Denzel Washington said it best “we live in a society where it’s more important to be first than accurate.”
If you want to call yourself a journalist try proofing your story first. There are at least three typos in it. It’s hard to believe a self-righteous editorial like yours when it has simplistic errors in it.
I’m not finding the typos.
I found two: one in a link to your earlier personal account, one in the third to last paragraph.
A third: “race-baiting”.
“thrown off a plane of taking a picture” guessing you mean “for taking a picture”
Here is what she is referring to:
“race bating”
“thrown off a plane of taking a picture”
“Stores like this….presents an opportunity”
I liked the article, but these were glaring.
Thanks, all fixed.
OMG , I have completely lost track of what I was reading about in the first place. Please ,keep writing Matthew and don’t listen to all this crap. I enjoy your articles.
Thanks Donna.
Look harder, I was going to comment the same thing. “Stores like these, even fabricated ones, presents…” should be “Stories like these, even fabricated ones, present…”
Even your own article title is grammatically nonsense, “thrown off a plane of taking a picture.”
Granted, today’s culture no longer values grammar and spelling as a sign of quality but there is still a lingering subpopulation who will always equate the two!
Despite the nitpicking, more articles like this need to make the front page. Sadly, “FIRST!!!” will continue to win out over facts and truth until journalistic integrity is valued again.
Yes. Disheartening ‘fake’ stories to make a quick buck.
First of all, analyzing a 67 year old mother flying a separate flight than not being with son? In normal circumstances, why would the mother be until death to stay with her husband though had to fly out for the funeral?
A offspring wouldn’t have their mother on a separate flight, and the fathers funeral had to be out of reach to be flown, couldn’t all/one of them drive? All what was written appeared odd and unorganized.
Your brief explanation to the FA? What kind of imbicile uses the word “terrorist” when trying to reaasure a flight attendant on board. The picture taking was just an excuse to get you OFF that plane. Silly human
Mr. Warsaw should be charged with theft (or attempted theft, if they re-charge him the fare, and any other compensation.
Attempted, but unsuccessful, crimes must be charged similarly to successful ones, otherwise there’s no incentive not to try again.
I’m still not sure why any of the stories are newsworthy. Woman supposedly left alone overnight. Girl named Abcde laughed at. Couple forced from first class supposedly because they are gay. Really? First of all, before the internet were these really newsworthy? Second, get the facts from both sides before throwing it out into the interworld. Companies aren’t nameless faces and it isn’t fair to the other employees who are trying to do a good job when a half baked story comes out about their employer.
This was not “fake news” and is not an example of “fake news.” This is a lie that was believed by gossip bloggers like yourself, and perpetuated with all the fury of a gossip blog. Now, an impetuous fit of a blog headline is thrown out to try to undo the imbecilic previous perpetuation of a lie that had not been vetted.
“Fake news” is news designed by the producer to mislead and is often based on a premise with significant truth.
A fake journalist is someone like yourself.
With thanks to NBC News and the AP for first reporting the story and American Airlines for confirming it.
It’s called investigative journalism. Being responsible. You’ll care more when it’s your company being insulted by…what was your word choice? A lying imbecile.
I definitely agree with your comments and of those that closely resemble the same thing. Still nobody praised the guts and proffesionalism he showed by retracted himself and rewriting the story, stating that he regretted not having veryfied the facts first before publishing the original story. He also mentioned that he will be more careful in doing so in the future. I think that could not be call fake news but an impulsive human error on his part. It’s funny that since Trump became President, those words have become a house hold item in itselt, and as it is of universal knowledge, there are more real than fake lies coming out of his mouth
Having worked in Customer service and specifically retail this does not surprise me. 90% off customers would greatly embellish or just flat out lie to make themselves look like a victim when in fact they generally have acted like a horse’s ass screaming and acting like a child in the store when they didn’t get their way. I rarely believe the majority of most customer issues but we generally appease them just to shut them up
My question to you sir is, Why should I believe anything that you write. You have sold your soul to the “First with a story devil”.
The takeaway here is that American so unashamedly, even proudly, routinely offers such ridiculously awful service and has such disdain for its customer base and a relatively non-existent customer service value system, that of course this was immediately believable as just another day at the airport with AA.
It would be wonderful if all stories could be fact checked before being written and posted online or in the media. If so, the original narrative to this story would have been different
That’s the point. Isn’t AA a good source? How about the Associated Press? Fox News? NBC News? All covered it before me…
I’ve been critical of you in the past for pontificating on certain things about the industry that you only have 3rd party knowledge of…. but I truly respect the fact that you have the integrity to admit that you were duped right along with the rest of us. Ignore the idiots who try to minimize that.
I wondered about the truth when I noticed her ‘ wheelchair’ was actually a walker. Note the wheels. Anyway, in another photo shes in a wheelchair but the walker is hers.
While I agree with your thesis that fake news is corrosive to society, I think you’re not applying it correctly. Fake news is deliberately misleading for a political objective. News coverage about a story that turns out to be completely fabricated isn’t fake news, it’s a development. This whole story is a great deal of things, just not too sure it’s acdirate to chalk it up to fake news – which is a very real and very worrisome threat to society.
That was a truly thoughtful article.
I guess I’m missing a point here. I do not equate bloggers with any journalistic integrity. This is not “fake news” as there is no verification of any sources. I saw it, experienced it, or heard about it; then blogged about it.
As @Christine Duval points out – the author failed to mention that he used the word terrorist in this blog post. That is a MAJOR flaw in this blogger’s integrity. ALL the facts even “OLD” blog fats need to be brought to the table every time you want to throw this into the mix.
As everyone has heard – you don’t yell “FIRE” in crowded theater, nor use the word “BOMB” in an airport situation, and since 2001 – the word terrorist.
I see that the grammar issue was addressed and “FIXED” – which to me is a non-issue. I would like to see the context of your blog “FIXED” under the “The Death of Truth” 3rd paragraph. The sentence, ‘there were no other facts’ and the FA lied to get me off the plane. That is not true as taken from the linked article – where as @Christine Duval points out – you did use the word terrorist. These are your words and they are omitted from this blog, WHY?
Why bring up an article, omit key communicating facts from 2013. As Elsa would say, “Let it Go!”
As far as the”race baiting” goes. What no one has asked as far as I can tell is how old was the players son? If they were under the age of 18 then by law they can not be seated in an exit row. So no reason for him to be seated in the exit row at that point if the entire reason was to be with his kid. Just my 2 cents on that one
Fake women in a fake capitalist metoo society.
Except she appears to be a French Canadian.
PLEASE. No more “appearing to be”. Post the facts if they can be discerned. This woman “appeared” to be deserted in an airport overnight. THAT proved to be false.
Rather than write a piece blaming society for “fake news,” why don’t you vet your stories with a more critical eye rather than capitalizing on sensationalist headlines? All you’ve done is shown yourself to be part of the problem, and worst yet, put the blame elsewhere.
I see a lot of personal responsibility in my post. Don’t you?
Hey, it happens. Honestly that’s why I read articles about airline cabins and point specials. I like to read about sports, art, cars, etc… These are the things that matter the most now to me. Basically they’re what I’m not only interested in, but also experiences I can think about sharing with friends and family. Nothing is more important that time with loved ones and good friends. Of course work is important, as is helping others directly the best I can.
The one thing I don’t need anymore is “news.” Why? It’s not news anymore. It’s just biased tribal political agenda where facts get either buried or grossly exaggerated. This creates misleading narratives to push for Team Red or Team Blue. I’ve found it’s dangerous to watch Faux News, BSNBC or The Clinton News Network… No, thank you. The LAST thing anybody needs is Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon or Sean Hannity telling me how to think. If something really big and important is going on, I’ll just get the facts from Reuters or the local media where it’s happening.
It’s just better this way, for me at least. Besides, I’d rather help an elderly neighbor get to the supermarket rather that reading some hit piece.
Good grief…so many crazy comments blaming Matthew for poor vetting/reasearch, when the ‘truth’ of the story had been confirmed by AA itself. I’m all for calling out travel bloggers when they get it wrong but that isn’t the case here.
It goes without saying that there has been a proliferation of this type of case since the master of the dark art f getting something for nothing took office in DC. He’s a role model for these shysters looking for a fast , free buck.
This issue has only been REPORTED since President Trump came in Office. The libs are so spun that they have reported more trash as facts because they were caught off guard with their awful candidate and awful campaign. YOU can post about what a person SAYS (while ignoring the spin people you like say) but none of you ever post about all of the victories President Trump has won. Lower taxes for all (you libs think $1,000 to $2,000 is “crumbs”), the lowest unemployment in 50 years, the highest GDP in decades, payment for food stamps has decreased dramatically to name but a few. If this was done under a lib administration you people would be screaming about these improvements from the rooftops. However, under your socialist agenda NONE of these things happened. YOU (and those of your ilk) LOST!!! Get over it!! After all, 8 years will fly by!!
Rather than recharging her for the ticket, it would be more appropriate for American to issue a lifetime ban so that Ms Warsaw is not allowed to travel again on American Airlines.
Exactly. That is the only way the airlines can put a stop to this.
Maybe instead of writing an article the “reporter” should report the truth by getting all the “facts” from all parties involved.
Nowadays it’s not news anymore it’s just sensationalism
Let’s not forget you explicitly mentioned terrorism to a UA team member onboard the plane you were kicked off…
In the negative sense…like, I am not one.
Matthew, I’ll give you credit for following up on the original story and correcting the record, so often incorrect stories are just left to hang, with no recognition that they were inaccurate. We can all improve and learn and get better – what else can we do.
Thank you for correcting an incorrect story. Admitting that a story which you authored was based upon incorrect information is difficult. I appreciate your honesty. Yes, a lesson about fake news, but also one for the courage to admit a mistake and the attempt to fix the wrong. Bravo, Matthew!
Many people might not remember the good ol’ days when an airline would do its best to assist you if you had to change/cancel a flight. Thanks to self-absorbed jerks like this, we now all pay the price.
The irony is that the Washington Post itself has proven itself to be unreliable when it comes to the truth. So I really don’t know whether to believe them about this.
Matthew, thank you for your integrity in writing this follow-up article and bringing the truth to light. In my opinion, you made an honest mistake in posting the first story on the issue, but obviously you we’re only following the original sources of this news, who were all credible sources at the time, including AA.
I acknowledge you for setting the record straight. Some of the negative comments towards you are unfortunate. But, I look to you only as a blogger, not an AP journalist. That’s not why you’re doing this as a journalist. Keep on posting my friend. This blog has been valuable to me on many occasions and many to come! Thank you again for this update and setting the record straight. That shows integrity.
Thanks Tony!