Bailey is a bit of a go to guy for the media...As for writing to the Australian....why would I care that much?
Your thoughts transcribed into words for the national newspaper, read by many 'people of influence' in Australia, may well put a new, nicely argued train of thought 'out there' and be an important (and valuable) contribution to public debate. 'The Oz' has a much greater audience than specialist blogs.
Many people might learn something, and perhaps the media would have a new, second 'go to bloke.' It doesn't seem to constrain the aforesaid Mr Bailey that he allegedly works for a smaller aviation company - it's not clear to me how much flying he does these days - although probably most larger employers (whether private sector or governmental) don't always like their employees or even contractors talking to media. Others may be more relaxed about it, even when a person is introduced as 'North Shore Hospital brain surgeon Godfrey Gooddeed' and hence a link to one's employer is publicly and instantaneously created. The 'paranoia' of companies may be more about if anything is stated by the 'go to' man or woman that is remotely contentious: the public relations people may be worried that this could reflect adversely on the employer of the 'expert.'
Mr Bailey may also 'get the play' because he obviously has some journalistic skills: the ability to author what seems a reasonably credible hypothesis that is comprehensible to a generalist audience. Naturally, he may be anything from 100 per cent correct to 100 per cent wrong.
Mr Bailey may 'love the media' (and get paid for his writing at A$1 a word or whatever the rate is these days) but the media probably love him even more.
The latter regard 'go to' 'experts' as gold on particular topics because media outlets want to be 'first with the latest' and not have to hunt around for someone who'll talk to them: if I recall, radio 3AW's weekday top rating 'brekkie boys' Ross and John (famous in Melbourne but probably unknown in the rest of the country) routinely call some USA 'expert' on aviation: maybe Arthur xx_X (I've not listened for a while.)
Some with valuable knowledge choose not to be in the limelight, have an understandable dislike of many individuals in the media or how the whole increasingly crowded and 'sound bite' media (I use the plural there) set up operates in Oz. One suspects that cynicism towards 'the media' has been on the rise in Australia with some of that damage self-inflicted. For instance, there are many journalists who cannot correctly use the rules of grammar and punctuation, such as proper use of apostrophes. If they or their sub-editors cannot get basics such as that correct, why would anything consider that what they write is credible?
One (former?) QF pilot is now a regular on the speaking circuit, and may well be paid fairly handsomely for that, which is one way to contribute, give others an enjoyable experience in exercising their gray matter but not in that case directly interact with formal media (unless reporters are present at such functions.) That's one way to 'compromise.'
The long timeframe for typical ATSB investigations prior to the issue of a final report creates a vacuum, especially if there are other (euphemistically called) 'incidents' in which the media become interested.
