They are both really, really good at apologies. (Jet Blue’s here. Gavin’s latest, in which CBS asks him about “the man code” here.)
I never had any doubts that Jet Blue could recover from its PR nightmare, for the simple fact that I fly cross country a fair bit on Jet Blue, and I haul my butt over to Oakland because their fares are lower, the flights are always, in my experience, on time, and I can indulge in 6 hours of HGTV if I care to do so. (Sadly, I do.) Gavin, I wasn’t so sure (and by recovery here I mean: bid for Sacramento or Washington). But then I saw his “exclusive” interview (and most recent apology) with the local CBS affliate.
Damn, the man is good (though was it the lighting, or does he have a bald spot? Check the video).
He was frank, he managed to be funny, he hit a lot of demos (including dyslexics, like me!) without appearing to pander, he got away with saying “I am who I am” without sounding like Popeye…
Now granted, the interview had the fingerprints of Peter Ragone and Chris Lehane all over it, but Peter’s sock puppet incident aside (Dude! didn’t you learn the lesson of Lee Siegel? Though Ragone’s lesson was a promotion. His boss’ scandal hit just in time.), there’s a reason why these guys, all three of them, are considered killers.
Gavin killed.
UPDATE: Check out the Wiki war on Gavin, specifically if dating a Scientologist reflects badly upon him. (On that subject, don’t even get me started.) And let’s hope Ragone’s not indulging in any Wiki reverts.
