The New World of Crisis Management

The Internet has changed the nature of calamity, says a new breed of disaster masters. For the worse

J.P. Filo / CBS / AP

Jet Blue founder and CEO David Neeleman, left, is treated to some complementary airplane peanuts and a Diet Coke when he visits the "Late Show with David Letterman," in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007.

David Neeleman's weeklong media apology tour took the JetBlue CEO from the Today show to David Letterman to Anderson Cooper to beg forgiveness for the popular airline's Valentine's Day debacle. The company had stranded more than 100,000 travelers after bad weather decimated its operating ability--in one case JetBlue passengers were left on a snowed-in runway for more than nine hours. Neeleman's mea culpa reached its apogee with a series of full-page national-newspaper ads: "Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that you, your family, friends and colleagues experienced." Neeleman rolled out a Customer Bill...

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