Watch: Right-wing news anchor baselessly blames 'wokeism' for Southwest Airlines' flight disruptions

01 January 2023

Right-wing Newsmax anchor Grant Stinchfield posited over the weekend that the culprit behind the thousands of canceled flights by Southwest Airlines was a "cyber hack" enabled by the carrier's inclusionary employment policies.

"So I told you my prediction is that Southwest Airlines was a victim of a cyber hack. I still believe that could be true. Let's go through the facts here," Stinchfield stated in a video. "Southwest said that it was a winter storm, and then they changed their story to an old antiquated system, and they couldn't keep track of their crews because of that outdated software and all of the IT stuff."

Indeed, that is what occurred. National Public Radio reported last Tuesday that "analysts say Southwest's problems are the result of a confluence of events — not just the severe weather, but staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as employees out sick with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Most importantis an outdated computer system for crew scheduling that turned what would have been simply a challenging storm into a full-scale meltdown."

The outlet noted that "another key factor is Southwest's heavily [sic] reliance on shorter, point-to-point flights, rather than a 'hub and spoke' model of many of its largest competitors. In fair weather, it's a system that has worked well for them. But in inclement weather, it can cause problems, says Kathleen Bangs, a former commercial airline pilot and spokesperson for FlightAware."

NPR also pointed out that "other airlines have had similar 'operational meltdowns' in the past," adding that "in summer 2021, for example, it was Spirit and American. And over Memorial Day this year, it was Delta Air Lines."

Although Stinchfield did not deny these facts, he nonetheless insisted – without presenting any corroborating evidence – that Southwest's massive failures were due to "vulnerability" from "wokeism" inside the company's hierarchy:

Here's the thing. Because it's outdated, that makes it vulnerable to a cyber hack. What do criminals do? What do terrorists do? They exploit vulnerability. Add into this why Southwest had outdated systems – because they've gone woke. Go woke, go broke. Go onto the corporate website of Southwest and you'll see diversity, inclusion, equity. You'll talk about sustainability. You'll talk about environmental issues, all on Southwest's website.

Southwest was concentrating more on pandering to the woke crowd than they were on helping customers than they were on serving customers. The bottom line is, provide a good service, serve your customers, and get people from one state to the other. That's what Southwest should be focused on, not wokeism. But for the last ten years or more, Southwest has been focused on wokeism and not hiring real good programmers and IT professionals. That's what they should have been doing.

Watch below or at this link.

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