NYTimes: A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A.

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"If a squadron of mad scientists surrounded by supercomputers gathered in a laboratory to try to conjure a single news topic that would blow up large, they could not touch the T.S.A. pat-down story.

It began with a Drudge Report link to a video on Nov. 13 of an intrusive pat-down, and then leapt to social media and the rest of the Web. Twitter lighted up, flashing 4,000 posts an hour with cheeky hash tags, and in just the first two days of last week, there were 60 million Google queries for information on the change in the Transportation Security Administration protocol, according to Trendrr, a social media measurement company.

Soon enough, an online protest calling for a National Opt-Out Day popped up, with a call to refuse to submit to scans and to clog airports on Wednesday, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Cue the media mushroom cloud: by Tuesday, there were print reports about the new scanning technology, heavy-breathing blog posts about the government using the technology to alter or gather DNA (eww), and every cable channel featured wall-to-wall speculation about what would happen when people got to the airport on Wednesday and how many would be carrying lanterns and pitchforks.

"This story tapped right into the central nervous system of the collective consciousness,” said Mark Ghuneim, chief executive of Trendrr. “It was huge.”

But then, in the real world, nothing happened."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29carr.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. "But then, in the real world, nothing happened."

I didn't realize all those post and tweets created themselves.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Yea I figured it was staged, it is so far beyond any common sense.

It had to be sabotage to hurt concepts of having government, either the Democrats weren't in the loop, or their were other things in the 'theater' of it.

Like I said, I been suspicious since it makes no sense in any way why they would do that except to create a maximum conditioning, you can't get much more invasive then frisking every passenger getting on a plane. It reeks of security state.


The only way you can logically understand it is if your mind set sees a future USA that is a security state, then it is just a step to an imagined state with checkpoints and tracking and many other things, then it would not seem like much because of the mind set. But with a free state mindset it is ridiculous.


Then there is that it is not done anywhere else, and that other places use things like dogs that are cheaper.

It really seems to be complex psyops.

[Skittles]

9. every passenger WASN'T frisked

that was all BS

[Skittles]

3. easy to get people hysterical and paranoid, that's for sure

[hlthe2b]

4. Nothing happened because TSA shut down the scanners...

and reverted back to basic procedures in most airports fearing a backlash. Damn, NYT just goes further and further downhill, in terms of any real reporting.

[Matariki]

7. A convenient fact everyone seems to be ignoring.

[patrice]

5. I'm pretty sure this is the first post on the TSA story that I have read and replied to.nt

[joeybee12]

6. Yeah, something DID happen...air travel this holiday weekend was the LOWEST

on record...people opted out of flying...stupid NYTimes is pathetic.

[Matariki]

8. Do you have any links w/ those statistics?

I've heard that anecdotally (from travel agents and travelers) but haven't seen any actual numbers yet.

[Fruittree]

10. And if people didn't fly - was it because of the machines and

pat downs or because of concerns over backups in case of a protest?

[Alcibiades]

11. "Twitter lighted up,"

From the article:

"Twitter lighted up,"

What does it take to get a job at The New York Times? It is possible for a candle to be lighted, but to say that Twitter lighted up? David Carr is a columnist and reporter at the NYT, and he thinks this is OK. IT'S NOT OK. I don't even care what the article actually has to say: anyone who thinks t...hat "lighted" is preferable to "lit" has nothing to of value to contribute.

Apparently they don't have editors for their reporters' blogs. 10% unemployment, and this fellow has a job writing for a living. Makes my blood boil.

[Bill O Rights]

12. The New York Times is a SHILL for the POLICE STATE

Investigative journalism is almost completely gone in our country. Instead of taking a critical look at this issue, including the MASSIVE ASSAULT on our 4th Amendment Rights, the NYT simply helps the governments propaganda efforts.

It is no wonder that the majority of people on both the Left and the Right mistrust the Media. It is because they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.