Social Media Takes a Spin: Who Knew The TSA Was Cutting Edge?
Apparently the TSA isn’t an old plodding arm of the government in every way.
A few days ago My Bottle’s Up posted about TSA agents taking her child away and [hinted at] incarcerating her. An except is:
The male TSA agent repeated, “I’m going to have to pick him up to inspect him.”
I handed him my son.
I handed him my son and he walked away with my child.
My eyes welled up with tears, I stood up from my chair and I asked the female TSA agent, “Where is he going? Where is he taking my child? Why is he leaving?”
Jackson, while being whisked away looked at the male TSA agent awkwardly and repeated “no no no no.”
In what has to be the best ever use of social media by a bureaucracy, the TSA posted the following:
A blog post has been circulating today from a woman who wrote a very emotional story about being separated from her child while traveling through a TSA check point. Two things went through my mind after reading her post.
- As a father of two small children, I empathized with her about the alleged circumstances.
- As a TSA employee and former TSO, I felt it could not be true — especially since our policy is that TSA will not ask parents to do anything that would distance them from their children during the screening process.
TSA works daily to achieve the balance of effective security and passenger convenience. We diligently review claims of improper conduct. But when inaccurate passenger accounts are made either via media outlets or on the blogs, TSA works to resolve them and present both sides of the story. In this case, TSA has made the decision to post the CCTV video of the incident online to allow for transparency.
After watching the video footage, you’ll see the video clearly shows that this invididual was never separated from her baby by TSA. You’ll also see that a lot of the other claims are also unfounded.
Being a Mom and a blogger, I’m guessing you’re waiting for the outrage, for the moment where I scream, she lied she lied.
I can’t do that. I will, however await her reply, and sit here for a moment thinking of when my kids were that age, and how scary the world seemed. I’m going to relax a little and send out support for everyone, because I think when we are new Moms sometimes our perceptions and our fears can become our reality.
What I will say is this.
Social Media is new, but the old rules apply, double check your sources and your facts. Try to be as honest as your can, otherwise, maybe silent is best.
*****
UPDATE: A response has been posted. Nichole White is saying that the TSA tapes are incomplete. Also, Christopher Elliot (of course) has some stellar advice for both travelers and TSA. Christopher Elliot is the go to guy for travel.