How We Got the Story

This five-part series, which includes this three-part series on how we got the story, is the result of a two-year investigation, involving dozens of legal filings, scores of interview requests, several interviews, innumerable Zoom meetings, and five 311 calls.

- BRUCE HEADLAM AND STEPHEN SHERRILL

We examined hundreds of confidential documents, crisscrossed the country three times, and uncovered shocking revelations, including the fact that we were still short of Delta Medallion status.

Our investigation was driven by three questions, or what journalists call "concerns." First, what was the relationship between company executives and government regulators? Second, was there evidence of a "quid pro quo" (literally, a reciprocal relationship that raises "concerns")? Third, was there sufficient evidence of a "quid pro quo" to keep us from being reassigned to the sports desk? Using cell-phone data and flight manifests, we followed Michael Tisdale, the chief executive, for months, shadowing him during a weekend at Davos, observing him as he toured factories in China, and spending ten days partially submerged in the koi pond outside his office. We also tracked his activities online, contacting him on LinkedIn more than seven (8) times. It was later revealed that we had the wrong Michael Tisdale, but the one we found sounds like he's doing quite well as a "brand development manager" for the past "one year and 3 months," which we are still trying to confirm.