THE SPIN MACHINE AT WORK, AGAIN

There's a lengthy article in the USA Today with the headline: Are you safe on a cruise ship? First thought is wow, it's about time. A hard look at the industry in general. But a few sentences into the piece, writer (not reporter) Erica Silverstein (of Smartertravel.com) concludes: 'The answer is a conditional yes.'
Oh, how brave of you.
Let's look at her sources. She quotes Michael Crye, president of the international council of cruise lines (the ICCL) 5 times. The ICCL, btw, is a paid shell for the cruise lines - they lobby on their behalf. Did you know that the cruise lines spent more on federal lobbying last year than Walmart? Of course he's going to say cruising is safe. He's not going to bite the hand that feeds him.
The question I have: where are the former cruise line employees who, speaking from experience, cite examples of the dangers of cruising? Where are the former security guards who can explain the egregious practices of their former captains and cruise lines? That, I guess, might make travelers squeamish about cruising. I'd love to know the origin of this piece and who pitched it to whom.

The bottom line is this - it's all about their bottom line. If you do your homework on what really happens on cruise ships, you'll find they are the perfect place to commit a crime. The crime occurs, there is little, if any proper investigation, the authorities (if notified) are late to the game, jurisdictional issues confuse everyone, nobody gets arrested, the ship sails on, and the crime remains a secret - afterall, it's in their $best$ interest to keep it that way. End of story.