Daily Record, KHOG Confuse Public on Boeing Story (Media Review)
by June 9, 2003 12:00 am 80 views
The Benton County Daily Record published a Page 1 story on May 28 saying the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill “is … being offered” as a site for a Boeing airplane assembly plant.
The story was basically accurate, but a telephone call to Ed McCallum of Greenville, S.C., would have cleared things up considerably. He’s the consultant who is trying to help Boeing find a location for the plant that will manufacture 7E7 jetliners.
After reading the Daily Record story, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal called McCallum and learned that he expects at least 50 applications from places vying for the Boeing plant. So XNA’s chances are no better than 1 in 50. The Daily Record story implied six sites were under consideration — three in Arkansas and three elsewhere in the United States. Maybe that’s all that have applied so far, but it’s very early in the application process.
From talking to McCallum, we also learned that building the plant will be an $800 million project, which wasn’t reported by other local media outlets.
To confuse matters further, during the morning newscast on May 29, KHOG/KHBS, Channels 40/29, apparently misread the Daily Record story and reported that XNA is one of only three sites being considered for the plant — all of them in Arkansas.
The Daily Record quoted Jim Pickens, director of the Arkansas Economic Development Department, saying he had asked Boeing to consider three sites in Arkansas — in the northwest, northeast and central areas.
Instead of “northeast,” the KHOG reporter said “Jonesboro.” But the northeast location would more than likely be the site of the former Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville, which is now known as Arkansas Aeroplex and the Arkansas International Airport.
“I don’t know if they’re even considering any of these sites,” Pickens told the Business Journal.