Star omits Malaysia Airlines' ranking slip

In its online report today, The Star reported that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) staff held a grand dinner last night after bagging its fourth consecutive “World's Best Cabin Crew” and “Advertiser of the Year 2004” awards,

MAS bags two top awards for fourth time

KUALA LUMPUR: After bagging its fourth consecutive “World's Best Cabin Crew” and “Advertiser of the Year 2004” awards, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) staff celebrated their achievements with a grand dinner here last night.

MAS received the “World's Best Cabin Crew” award from Skytrax and “Advertiser of the Year 2004” at the Kancil Awards recently.

Chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Munir Abd Majid said the global awards were proof that MAS had established itself as one of the world's premier airlines after 32 years in operation.

MAS staff deserve to be congratulated for this achievement.

Anyone reading The Star's report would assume that Malaysia Airlines as a whole has triumphed over the competition.

But what The Star failed to report is that in Skytrax's category of "Airline of the Year", Malaysia Airlines actually slipped from 4th in 2003, to occupy 8th position in this year's survey.

The top five Airlines of the Year for 2004 were:

1st Singapore Airlines
2nd Emirates
3rd Cathay Pacific
4th Qantas Airways
5th Thai Airways

Why is The Star being selective in its reporting? Why did it omit mentioning Malaysia Airlines' slide in ranking in the report today and not report on the reasons for this? Is it only interested in publishing good news and omitting unfavourable news?