Media in the New Millennium

posted by Doyle

I tweeted a link to this Fast Company article on new restrictions that have been put in place (hopefully temporarily) in the wake of the recent failed attack on a U.S. airliner.

Those of you who follow my tweets know that I’m not fan of TSA and the way we attempt to protect the flying public, and this article captures many of my concerns quite well. We’re facing some potentially serious threats, but we’re “protecting” ourselves with inadequate, knee-jerk reactions and inadequate staff rather than getting serious about stopping the bad guys.

I’m willing to put up with travel delays for my safety and that of my fellow passengers, but only if the inconveniences actually make a difference. Remember when they used to ask you if you packed your bags yourself and if they’ve been in your possession the entire time since you packed them? In my hundreds of thousands of miles of travel, I never once saw someone turn to an accomplice, based on those probing questions, and say “damn, they got us!” It was utter nonsense, and sadly, we haven’t progressed as much as we should have.

I’m also in favor of an across-the-board upgrade of TSA personnel. Such positions need to be staffed by trained security professionals — for the most part, bluntly, I’m not seeing it. It never ceases to amaze me when a TSA official checks my ID against my boarding pass without ever looking at my face. I recently took more than 10 flights with a pair of scissors in a shaving kit that I didn’t know were against regulations. They were finally confiscated — but I’d carried them on for thousands of miles all year, not knowing they were a potential lethal weapon. Were the previous screeners just not paying attention? If we can’t get the little stuff right, we’re in trouble when real problems strike. Such common oversights are far more threatening to public safety than bringing a Kindle onboard or having a pillow in my lap.

I hope we’ve got the best minds in the protection business thinking about what we need to do, because we need get this right — on many levels. Making passengers take off their shoes is not a strategy, and we need to get out of that mindset quickly.

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