FPI / January 14, 2022

Corporate WATCH

Commentary by Joe Schaeffer

If you want to observe a textbook example of progressive ruling establishment-Big Corporate joint operations in action, keep an eye on what is going down at United Airlines.

As an added bonus, big-box media whoring is also on full display.

Jan. 11 — NBC News platforms rabid pro-vaccine narrative being pushed by United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby:
 

A companywide vaccine mandate appears to have ended a grim weekly event at United Airlines — the death of an employee from Covid-19, the carrier’s top executive said Tuesday....

The airline chief painted a stark picture of the deadly toll Covid-19 has taken on his company.

"Prior to our vaccine requirement, tragically, more than one United employee on average *per week* was dying from COVID," Kirby wrote.

"But we’ve now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among our vaccinated employees — based on United’s prior experience and the nationwide data related to COVID fatalities among the unvaccinated, that means there are approximately 8-10 United employees who are alive today because of our vaccine requirement."

As the network points out in nothing remotely approaching a critical way, United and the Biden administration make quite a team:
 

The Biden administration has been pushing for major companies, like United, to enforce vaccine mandates though it's unclear if those efforts will survive judicial review.

Still, the White House seized on Kirby's letter on Tuesday and held it up as an example of vaccine mandates working.

"That’s the difference. That’s vaccines. That’s a requirement," tweeted Ben Wakana, the deputy director of strategic communications & engagement for the White House’s Covid-19 response team.

This cozy back-and-forth has been going on for a while. United is clearly working hand-in-glove with the administration to pushing federal government jab coercion efforts. As World Tribune reported in September, Kirby was just waiting for the word from Biden to implement a vaccine passport requirement for air travel that he had already disturbingly set the machinery for:
 

In a discussion with NPR, Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, called vaccine mandates for travelers a “government issue,” but noted the company has the means to expand a proof-of-vaccination standard.

“For us to do that, we would probably require some sort of government directive,” Kirby said [Sept. 10]. “We have prepared ourselves with technology to be able to upload vaccine cards and track that and implement it if the government ever chooses to go in that direction.”

In a shocking October speech, Biden defended his coercive and wildly overreaching federal workplace coronavirus vaccine mandates in the most callous manner. Speaking to the American people as if they were children, Biden exclaimed:
 

“[W]e gave everyone ample time and information to deal with their concerns...."

But you silly fools wouldn't go along with the carrot, and so now you must get the stick. And so mandates were necessary. It's no coincidence that Biden cited Kirby and United Airlines once again in this heavy-handed authoritarian address:
 

I’ve spoken with Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, who’s here today. United went from 59 percent of their employees to 99 percent of their employees in less than two months after implementing the requirement. Ninety-nine percent….

Gee, why are United and Biden riding a tandem bicycle together on vaccine mandates? And why is a network like NBC propping up this obviously crafted party line? United Airlines is one of several major U.S. corporations that features embedded Obama administration alums in high places.

As World Tribune wrote in June 2020:

A vast corporate alliance with radical foundations and progressive billionaires to support revolutionary organizations has mushroomed into a profound danger that threatens Western Civilization itself. A fine way to highlight this joint venture, to borrow a business term, is to examine the numerous cases of former Obama administration officials playing key roles in corporations now publicly supporting Black Lives Matter as looting and violent riots scar America. United Airlines is one of the companies we featured:
 

Josh Earnest – United Airlines

Former Obama press secretary Earnest is now Chief Communications Officer at United.

“Before joining United, Josh worked as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, making appearances on the network’s leading news programs including the Today Show, Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News,” his United bio states. “Prior to that, Josh served for eight years in the Obama White House, first as deputy press secretary before being promoted to White House Press Secretary in 2014.”

Brett Hart, new president of United, has paid his required obeisance to Black Lives Matter. In a June 4 post on United’s website, Hart says:

“Friends, all lives matter… but let us not forget that using that term implies that all lives are equally at risk. They are not. And so today, I do say black lives matter. There is a specific problem occurring in the black community that is not happening in other communities on nearly the same level. This observation should not be divisive, but a wake-up call for all of us.”

That's right, before Earnest made his way to United Airlines after leaving Obama and Biden, he had a stopover at NBC News. And now he is the "senior vice president and chief communications officer" for United. His name comes third on the company's leadership page after CEO Kirby and President Hart.

And here is United today openly working with the Biden administration to form a federal government-big corporate tag team partnership against Americans on vaccine mandates.

While NBC is there to highlight it all. Kirby has gotten the sweetest of sweetheart treatment from NBC News throughout this contrived pandemic. Aug. 9 was a particular doozy:
 

In an exclusive interview with Lester Holt, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says the decision to mandate Covid vaccinations for employees was driven by concerns over hospitalizations and the delta variant. Kirby says a similar policy for passengers would be a “government responsibility and requirement.”

Holt would be featured later that same month in a far more repulsive propaganda role for the ruling regime. U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd played the victim and racism cards within the first minute of his Aug. 26 appearance with Holt as NBC blatantly whitewashed the cold-blooded killing of an unarmed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021.

Holt was hardly less subtle in performing his assigned duties with Kirby.

It's nauseating, but I'd highly recommend you giving this 2:24 video a watch. To call it canned doesn't even begin to capture how scripted it comes off. And Holt's line of inquiry always pushes Kirby towards the more coercive, as Holt stresses the deadly consequences involved.

He begins with a query on United possibly offering a testing option rather than a vaccine requirement. This leads to asking about a "tipping point" that made a mandate inevitable.

From there, "has there been any consideration to extending a requirement like this to passengers?"

Amazing.

Then Holt throws out the ominous specter of the "contagious nature of the Delta variant."

As every question ramps up the paranoia, it's clear that Kirby was thoroughly prepared to provide his dutiful responses. It's impossible not to conclude that this is all choreographed, orchestrated. Holt lobs expected softballs, and Kirby hits all his cues.

This is it. This is what we mean when we talk about the progressive ruling establishment alliance with Big Business.

At United Airlines, Obama alum Josh Earnest is the executive conduit that allows CEO Kirby to work seamlessly with an installed Biden administration and a cooperative Big Media to make the machinery operate. A grand alliance in tyranny, all aimed at the individual rights and standing of the American people.

Free Press International