A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A. - "in the real world, nothing happened"

[jefferson_dem]

A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A.
By DAVID CARR

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 (yow), 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.

A few passengers opted out and, if anything, lines were shorter because airport security was staffed up and people arrived early just in case.

<SNIP>

The pat-down story was the equivalent of vaporware — it seemed as if something huge was about to happen, but it turned out that it was a story about a story, the noisy, fervent sound of a news system feeding on itself.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29carr.html?src=twt&twt=nytimespolitics

[Skittles]

1. molesters! gropers! pedophiles! perverts!

the news media is disgusting. Oh wait...... :(

[jefferson_dem]

3. So many...so ready... to buy the frothy pablum the anxiety churning media toolboxes are selling..

Shame. Shame.

[Skittles]

5. there are legitimate incidents that need to be addressed

but the paranoia and hysteria was very easy to induce in the American people, that's for sure

[Hissyspit]

11. Invasive, ineffective and illegal.

The issues still remain.

[Luminous Animal]

2. I wonder how the NY Times missed the fact that in most airports the backscatter machines

were turned off. A person cannot opt out of something that isn't there.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. What media? It wasn't the Times, WaPo, NPR or the networks, but...

all the "alternative" media and the netroots that are supposed to be saving us from them that hyperventilated and started the uproar.

[woo me with science]

6. Yeah, yeah, we know...

O8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JVhbusBDi4

[jefferson_dem]

7. Yes, I know you do...

Matt Drudge hearts you ... for carrying his filthy, stinky water. :loveya: You --> :hug: <-- Sludge

[woo me with science]

9. And all those who value the Fourth Amendment

return the sentiment. :hug:

[sabrina 1]

21. This OP is completely wrong. Starting with the claim that this controversy

started with Drudge last week. This controversy started SIX YEARS ago when these machines and pat-downs were first introduced,

Drudge thanks you, and so does Bush, Chertoff who was looking to get these machines into airports for years, since he stood to make millions, but was foiled by the ACLU and DEMOCRATS across the nation who expressed so much OUTRAGE in 2004 that the pat-downs were stopped and no machines were used, and continued to fight their use until last year when Chertoff got his wish, using the fake claim that they would have stopped the underwear bomber.

Those of us who have followed this fight for Constitutional rights over the Bush attempts to turn this country into a police state, are having a hard time understanding why DEMOCRATS, who led the fight to stop these anti-Constitutional and useless tactics, have flip-flopped on this issue.

The conclusion being reached seems to be that Democrats are as hypocritical as Repubicans and the exact machines and patdowns that so offended them, and rightly so, when Bush was doing it, are okay now that THEY are doing it.

No wonder we are losing this country to Corporate America. People allow themselves to be patsies for partisan reasons, demonstrating how easily they can lose sight of important issues, when they are manipulated into viewing everything from a 'right/left' perspective. The puppet masters pulling the strings are laughing, and millions of dollars wealthier than they were a year ago, while once again, all the American people get is the loss of even more rights.

If only people did not react to the bait so easily. All the work done by the ACLU and other Civil rights organizations all those years, has been overturned, NOT by Republicans but by Democrats seeking to protect their team from criticism.

[Luminous Animal]

24. It is remarkable how easily we are led to forget.

Thanks sabrina for your efforts to maintain the truth.

[Initech]

8. Fuck the Drudge Report.

[spanone]

10. i flew cross country twice throughout the frenzy....i saw nothing of concern

[Hissyspit]

12. Invasive, ineffective and illegal.

The issues still remain. Including the health issues, which you, of course, would not see.

[jefferson_dem]

13. Neither did I.

From Atlanta to NY (LaGuardia) and back again. Saw nothing scandalous at all. No gropings. No nothing.

Y2K all over again.

[monmouth]

28. Me neither. Very pleasant both ways. Removed shoes, put them on, that's it..n/t

[sabrina 1]

29. That's because they caved to public opinion. On the busiest

day of the year, these machines, so important we are told, for our safety, were not used. Amazing decision, you would think if they really were for our own good, this weekend would the one weekend where they would be using them overtime.

Thank the gods for the people who stand up to government abuses. You should thank them too. It is because of them that you did not see anything of 'concern'. And no terrorists either.

[backscatter712]

14. Ah, the M$M spin on this - they neglected to mention that the TSA shut down the machines.

Can't opt out if they're not gonna scan you or grope you in the first place - just put your luggage through the x-ray machine and walk through the metal detector.

And of course, nobody's asking why the porno-scanners and grope-downs are so vital to national security if the TSA feels they can just turn the machines off and go back to the old way on the busiest flying day of the year...

[FormerDittoHead]

15. Bullshit and spin. You can't "opt out" of machines THAT WERE TURNED OFF.

>It began with a Drudge Report link to a video on Nov. 13

Oh.. FUCKING BULLSHIT. Drudge linked to a video THAT WAS ALREADY THERE, so "it" didn't "begin" with Drudge.

This isn't a "Republican" thing. Ask DEMOCRATIC Congressman Rush Holt of NJ what he thinks of this:
http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=649

This has become an issue BECAUSE IT JUST STARTED. It just started in LATE OCTOBER.
http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/102810_patdown.shtm

But as for last Wednesday, this report says:

"Under all the buzz, 80 percent of Americans traveling were still encountering the same procedures that have been in place for years."

That's because only about 10%-20% of them are installed.

In other words, THERE WAS NOTHING TO OPT-OUT OF. GOLLY - I WONDER WHY PEOPLE WEREN'T OPTING OUT IN THE PLACES WHERE THEY *COULDN'T*?

And where the backscatter machines WERE, he may have MENTIONED that the TSA turned off a lot of them OFF:

http://caivn.org/article/2010/11/26/tsa-shut-down-some-scanners-national-opt-out-day
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/newark_liberty_airport_controv.html


Tell us how one can opt-out of something that isn't ON?

For others "knowing" this was a "Republican conspiracy": Drudge was a come-lately.

This had nothing-the-fuck to do with Drudge, nor Republicans. It has nothing more to do with them than it has to do with Democrats. I've been following this issue and if you're not watching Fox or reading Drudge, you will see NO connection between them and the people who don't want to be FONDLED.

Drudge had no problems with secret searches, warrantless wiretaps and telecomm immunity - BUT I DID.

I don't care what the Republicans HYPOCRITES say about this, because they're the first ones to DEFEND the police when they cross the line. Like how Rush defended the cops who beat up Rodney King...

But the problem is that the TSA is serving to HARASS AND INTIMIDATE the people for SECURITY THEATER. They're trying to make you FEEL safer, not BE safer.

Because, while they're FEELING YOU UP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOSHu-UpQmg
They're NOT SCANNING THE LUGGAGE.

[Sparkly]

16. Interesting you posted this...

My stepson was here for dinner tonight, and works at the Baltimore airport. He said the machines were purposely turned off over the holiday weekend, probably to avoid negative press over the possible public protest.

[chill_wind]

22. Thank you. The MSM loves, loves loves SECURITY THEATER.

And selling fear.

[whatchamacallit]

17. OBEY

Trusting tools of the empire...

[jefferson_dem]

18. If by "the empire"...

you mean the hollow drudge-led MSM echo chamber of absurd hype ... I refuse.

[seabeyond]

19. it has been obvious thru this that you are pro naked scanners and groping, illusion of safety

in your hyperbole of op you chose to ignore the fact they turned off the scanners, because people are tht disgusted and tsa caved. you also suggest it is about drudge swill, though people have been opposed to the naked scanners long before drudge and groping is new.

you want to be the sheep that follows, that allows those scanners to progress thru out nation in courthouses and anywhere else they chose, without objection? that is fine. your right. be the sheep. live the sheep. baaaahh like a sheep.

the least, is to get a damn op right.

[jefferson_dem]

20. The entire text in the OP is pasted directly from the NYT write-up.

So perhaps you should direct your ad hominem insults their way. Why not start drafting the LTTE now?

[Luminous Animal]

26. So you disagree with the NYT write-up?

[krabigirl]

23. In the real world, they shut off the scanners that day. But many people didn't fly.

[cornermouse]

25. The people who chose to fly went to the airport.

Those who chose not to fly, didn't go near the airport. Seems pretty simple to me.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

27. I'm the last person on this earth to be influenced by the media.

I think it's the frightened, corporation loving, trust the government, "I just to feel safe", crowd that are easily led.

The scanners were down to avoid negative press.

I noticed something interesting on opt-out day; GE owned MSNBC was only covering the trains in the morning. When it came to the planes, they just had people outside the airports talking about traffic. But later on they announced there were no delays because of the opt out. I believe they were avoiding the airports because they didn't want to report on clogged security lines because of the opt-out crowd. But they didn't have to worry, TSA turned off the machines!

The TSA loving sheeple, begging for freedom frisks to make them feel safe, scare me. How can anyone be that easily scared into disregarding their civil rights, not to mention dignity?