Corporate Responsibility to the Truth

So, I'm sitting in the Air Canada lounge in Toronto because my flight to Hong Kong that was supposed to leave at 10:05 AM has been pushed to 3:00 PM. Officially, the weather here (It's snowing) is too bad for takeoff. Of course, considering the pilots still hadn't shown up when they made the announcement (at about 10:50), I'm starting to wonder if that's the case. Which leads me to a thought.

Why do companies lie to us?

Why is it that everytime something happens that isn't in their best interest, a company will lie to their consumer? Pilot didn't show up? tell 'em its a technical failure. The phone doesn't work because the wiring is faulty? Blame it on the telephone company. You don't know how to respond to my computer problem? Tell me to reboot and reinstall my OS.

I don't need to hear the same old lines every time something happens. In fact, I want to hear the god honest truth. I'd have more respect for companies if they told me why something went wrong and took steps to correct it, than if they made up a reason that I couldn't prove or disprove. In fact, I'd probably be more likely to use those companies again in the future if I knew that when they screwed up (as everyone inevitably will) they were frank and honest about what happened and how it was or is being fixed.

On the other hand, do we really want to know when something goes wrong? Do you want a stewardess to come on air and tell you that you're flight was delayed because the geniuses who were supposed to fly it are stinking drunk? Do you want to hear that 'New Coke' was really just some idiot screwing around in the marketing department because he was getting Canned (oooh, a unintentional joke!) and wanted to go out with a bang? I didn't think so.