David Armano a Twitter friend (we've never met, but I value his perspective and suspect I'd like him in person) has a must-read piece about trust in the media. And since we are all media now, who do we trust? His whole piece is worth reading, so please go look at the research, and then come back here for my thoughts.
So what happened on this flight? Certain accounts are being called into question, but the notion that something happened on that flight is not in dispute. Rusty Shackleford says this:
Yesterday, I shared the account given by Tedd Petruna about Air Tran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston Hobby. Today, I interviewed Dr. Keith Robinson, Corps Commander of the Houston Regional Community Chaplain Corps, as he actually took the flight, with the Arab men after Tedd and many other passengers got off the plane, once it was clear that both the TSA and Air Tran were going to allow the threatening passengers to stay on the flight.
Remember the flight from Atlanta to Houston that got turned around because of the guy who wouldn't get off the phone? That's not what happened. From the website Nobody Asked Me via Pierre LeGrand: