I have never much liked bullies. And I particularly don't like bullies who enjoy kicking someone when they are down. Bullies who kick someone when they are down while holding press credentials really make my skin crawl.
In my initial column on the Concordia tragedy, written immediately after the event, I suggested that we might all be advised to take a deep breath and allow the official inquiries to proceed before reaching any conclusions about the performance of the crew or the reaction of the vessel's owners and operators.
But the notion that this was a bunch of "rich folks on a luxury vacation at sea," as one breathless local anchor described it, was just too delicious for the mainstream media to resist.
And so it has come to pass, we are told by the media, that the Costa brand might not survive, first-time travelers will abandon the notion of cruising, Carnival's stock will tumble and the general public will be so filled with fear of the oceans that they will instead plop themselves down at an all-inclusive or visit the Caribbean by bus.
None of this has come to pass. There were some blips, but agents are largely reporting that cruise sales are business as usual.
Which is not to say that no damage was done.
The proud Costa brand appeals to a significantly higher number of loyal repeat guests than media reports have indicated. Costa is a household name in Italy in the best sense of the word. In Italy you don't do a cruise, you do a "Costa."
Meanwhile, I have spent considerable time trying to find one shred of evidence that terminating the Costa brand is under serious discussion. There is none. It was a phony story arising from taking a statement by Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi out of context.
When the consumer media report on an industry tragedy, you have to expect exaggerations and inaccuracies. With a few extremely rare exceptions, those who write on travel matters have never worked a day in the industry.
Which is why ABC News' chief investigative reporter, Brian Ross, who usually does his homework, went on air in the days following the tragedy to report that "a full hour after the tragedy occurred, the ship's captain was seated in the dining room asking for dessert and drinks for his female companion."
The worldwide press has encouraged reporting that would make one believe this "dashing captain," a known "womanizer" and reckless "Italian driver," was more interested in making a first-night impression on his illicit "date." Significantly, no one asked who remained on dining room duty to serve the captain his dessert, given that the ship was listing and in the middle of a mass evacuation.
Industry insiders know that an Italian crew is highly valued. But the media should understand that insurance companies have strict regulations governing the coverage of a $500 million floating investment and the person who manages it. So, by the way, do the bankers who finance the project. It is ludicrous to believe that a captain is selected based on his charm.
But that is not what ABC News was reporting. It aired an interview with a so-called "maritime attorney" who lectured the camera that the cruise industry needed to "clean out risk-takers."
Now that is interesting. The media would have us believe that there are too many swashbucklers out there, captains known to management as Jack Sparrow types who just won't follow orders. It makes for breathless -- and wholly inaccurate -- reporting.
Then there's Geraldo Rivera of Fox News explaining to readers of his blog what really happened: "That bum of a captain [was] recklessly showboating. ... How dare they drive that gigantic ship around like it was a flashy sports car they wanted to parade for the cute girls on the shore."
By way of establishing his credentials to comment on the Concordia disaster, Rivera pointed out that, as a sailor, he had "run aground literally scores of times in dozens of countries over the last half-century."
Costa started sailing in 1854, carrying olives between Liguria and Sardinia. Many Italians feel a kind of visceral connection to the brand's history, and they will not soon abandon ship. But they needed a hero to emerge from this tragedy, just as every major event in Italian history must have a hero.
In this case he was the handsome Coast Guard Captain Gregoria DeFalco, who "ordered" the despondent Captain Schettino in his lifeboat to "get back on board for ____'s sake." It is a stronger phrase in Italian, complete with sexual connotation. Go to Italy now and you will see Italians of all ages wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Vada a bordo, cazzo." Once again, Italy has managed to emerge with a hero capable of saving their dignity and sense of style.
But our sense of loss should not blind us to certain facts and possibilities.
Whatever the flaws in his actions that night, Captain Schettino did, finally, steer sharply toward shore, getting the seriously damaged ship as close as possible to land. Many passengers were able to swim ashore as a result.
But the bigger picture is that on a ship that turned on its side and started sinking within 26 minutes of impact, the crew managed to safely evacuate more than 4,000 passengers.
Tragically, there was loss of life. There were some horrific errors in judgment. But it is also true that an emergency evacuation that saved the lives of more than 99% of the passengers meant that a great many crew members did their jobs extremely well.
No one in the media paid notice to the fact that the Concordia's Filipino crew, when finally allowed to fly home to Manila, were greeted as heroes. By every account, they acted with discipline and with calm, and Filipino cooks and cabin attendants roped themselves together to work as a team helping passengers escape. But that doesn't fit in with the media's contention that the crew didn't know what it was doing.
Costa and Carnival Corp. have not, for largely legal reasons, been able to respond fully and with candor. I can assure you that they certainly would not choose me to speak for them. But cruising is statistically safer than staying at home, and it falls to us, collectively as agents, to tell our clients the truth and counter the falsehoods and exaggerations of the mainstream media bullies.
Contributing editor Richard Turen owns Churchill and Turen, a vacation-planning firm that has been named to Conde Nast Traveler's list of the World's Top Travel Specialists since the list began. Contact him at [email protected].