Imagethief was leafing through today's International Herald Tribune when he stumbled across an article on how corporate jets are now competing with commercial flights for air lanes, landing slots and other over-stretched civil aviation resources. In that article a man named Steve Brown, who is senior vice president for operations at the National Business Aviation Association, a group that represents the owners of private business jets, was quoted thus:

"On a business flight, you might have people going to Wall Street from companies who are creating jobs and generating billions of dollars in commerce," Brown said. "People on a commercial flight might be going on vacation or going to New York to go to the theater."

Yeah, or they might be going to visit their dying mothers in Pittsburgh. I wonder if the journalist, Nelson Schwartz, silently thanked god as his interview defended one of the most flagrant manifestations of wealth with a blisteringly unsympathetic quote invoking images of plutocratic entitlement guaranteed outrage virtually anyone reading it. "Going to Wall Street", fer Chrissake? Did he forget he was talking to a New York Times journalist? He might as well have said:

"We're more important than most of your readers and they should pretty much just deal with it and get on with their tiny little lives and meaninglessly trivial careers. Enjoy the peanuts."

It may be true, but it won't earn him points to come out and say it. Of course, this is one quote and who knows in what context it was delivered. But that's the thing about an interview. You've got to ask yourself, how would this statement look as a pull-quote sitting all by itself on the page? Oddly, prior to reading this article Imagethief was all for corporate jets for those who have the means. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, right? Now I am considering agitating for ban. Nice work, Steve.