the audit

From Quote to Lede

March 16, 2005

Today the Winston-Salem Journal reports that “A larger-than-expected demand for an ‘early-out’ package by reservation employees could cut US Airways Group Inc.’s work force in Winston-Salem nearly in half by this fall.”

If you follow the airline industry, that’s news that’s tough to digest — not so much that workers are bailing on US Airways, but that the airline, which is trying to cut costs by cutting staff, would be upset that its employees are embracing its buyout plan.

At first glance it seems that the Winston-Salem Journal has got facts to back up its lede. Some 384 of the 850 workers at its Winston-Salem call center opted for the plan. Let’s compare that to the number of employees that the airline expected to take the buyout. Oops, sorry — that number fails to make it into the Winston-Salem Journal.

So what does the newspaper have to back up its assertion that there was a “larger-than-expected demand for an ‘early out’ package”? Well, one Cathy Bumgarner told the Journal, “I think the airline likely was caught off guard that so many people chose to take the package in Winston-Salem.” And who is Cathy Bumgarner? A US Airways Vice President? A US Airways spokesperson? A union rep? Nope, none of the above. Cathy Bumgarner is described as a “22-year employee” of the call center. With all due respect, it doesn’t really sound like Cathy knows what the head honchos expected in response to their buyout offer.

The only fact that comes close to backing up the assertion in the lede that US Airways was caught off guard is a mention that the airline might miss out on up to $300,000 in incentives from local government for maintaining a certain number of employees in the area. But, then again, there’s no mention of how much the company saves with each bought-out employee — presumably more than $781 per head ($300,000 divided by 384 departing employees).

Either way, nothing in the way of the facts as presented in this story (sorry, Cathy) suggests that demand exceeded expectations.

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–Thomas Lang

Thomas Lang was a writer at CJR Daily.