The New York Times, hardly a Trump policy cheerleader, made it clear in by its report that the headline was deceitful and unfair:

“Spirit Airlines is preparing to shut down as early as 3 a.m. on Saturday after failing to strike a deal for a financial lifeline from the Trump administration…the budget airline reshaped aviation in the United States in recent decades by selling cheap tickets and charging fees for everything from printed boarding passes to seat selection. But high fuel prices, competition from larger airlines, the Covid-19 pandemic and an engine defect hobbled the company…. the airline had been negotiating a $500 million lifeline from the Trump administration….Over the past couple of years, Spirit’s footprint had shrunk a lot. It had about 12,000 scheduled flights in April, down from about 25,000 two years earlier…

“Spirit last reported an annual profit in 2019 and has lost several billion dollars since then. The airline had struggled to recover from the pandemic amid intense competition in its biggest markets. Spirit also wrestled with rising costs, a failed attempt to sell itself to JetBlue Airways and engine defects that grounded many planes in its fleet for long stretches…In an interview this week, Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, said Spirit’s problems predated the current rise in fuel prices since the war in Iran began on Feb. 28. “They were in trouble well before this, and well-run airlines are able to be profitable even in this environment,” he said…”

 

But the Times was spinning too. Conservative pundits are pinning the fate of Spirit on Democrats, particularly the Biden Administration, a factor that the Times glosses over. Senator Elizabeth Warren provided some evidence that this is partly a fair analysis by tweeting two years ago, “I’ve warned for months that a JetBlue-Spirit merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares. Justice and DOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers!”

It took me about four sources to confirm it, but there were many causes of Spirit’s demise. Calling it a casualty of the war is a deliberate misrepresentation, or in other words, “journalism.”