Anti-TSA "protests" were unlikely from the get-go

[Bragi]

From what I could tell, the much-anticipated "protests" against TSA's new intrusive measures were unlikely to occur in the first place, and were more a emdia invention than a real possibility.

Described by media as a "loose Internet alliance" or some such thing, the protests seem to have been organized by people with zero experience at organizing anything. Moreover, the "leaders" were calling for people not to fly more than they were calling for on-site protests, demos, tying up lines, etc.

So it was child's play for TSA to make "the failed protests" the big story from yesterday. They started with their "failed protest" PR early in the day on the breakfast shows, and pushed that line all day, the consistent message being everyone is quite happy with the new security (sic) measures.

But what I thought was more interesting was that while TV reporters were obediently reporting the TSA message from airports across the land, in the background of their reports you could see very uncrowded airports that looked quite unlike what we've seen in news reports in past years.

So it will be interesting to see what comes out once the travel data is public. I'm not sure when this comes out, but I predict we will see that air travel was down considerably, while car travel was way up.

I personally would not attribute this to the protest, but simply to common sense -- the new TSA measures were the final straw for the traveling public. There was no vote of support there for TSA, despite their PR campaign and that of the travel industry.

I [predict the numbers will show that flying has been made so bad that people now either want to drive to their Thanksgiving destinations, or will just stay home (and watch Detroit lose another Thanksgiving classic).

[Barack_America]

1. You've heard the scanners were mostly turned off, haven't you?

Presumably in anticipation of protests.

So, in the end, there wasn't much to protest.

[Bragi]

3. I know that, but it wasn't what really caught my attention

Yes, I've heard about the TSA backing off yesterday, and I can see the PR reasons they would do that.

However, if real travel data eventualy shows that there was a big decline in Thanksgiving air travel this year, then I think that will be a far more important measure of how people really feel about the new TSA regimen, regardless of whether TSA turned off the scanning machines for the day.

Time will tell. In the meantime, I sadly give the PR award of the day to the TSA, who managed to spin the lack of visible protests into a vote of support for increased intrusiveness.

- B

[Little Star]

8. Yep, TSA chickened out is the impression I got.

Time will tell.

[Warpy]

2. The day before Thanksgiving is a mob scene

and they don't call coach "cattle class" for nothing. People mostly just wanted to get on those planes and get the whole thing over with.

I didn't expect much of a protest, either. The protests will be sporadic and come on ordinary days when somebody's nerves are frayed beyond the breaking point.

[Bragi]

4. Were the uncrowded airports on TV just my imagining?

I didn't see every report from airports, obviously, but almost every report I saw yesterday showed pretty light traffic in the background, or so I thought.

Did others see the same thing, or was my sense of this just wrong and/or coincidental?

[Warpy]

5. The paranoid jerks were expecting protests

so they staffed more than adequately. I'm sure it was one of the more pleasant flying experiences since there were few long lines and people were whisked directly through to the boarding areas.

Where was this lightly traveled airport? A report from a friend cited Logan as a real mob scene. Boston is a massive college town and that's where you're going to find the travelers.

[LibDemAlways]

6. From what I saw the airports looked pretty empty or more like

you'd expect on a "normal" travel day. I think it's a combination of the poor economy coupled with some people's reluctance to subject themselves to a grope or x-ray at the airport. Of course many tickets were purchased months ago, and those people were going regardless.

I have maintained from the start that the only way to get these policies changed is for people to drastically cut back on all discretionary commercial air travel. So far the airlines have been silent. When it starts to seriously affect the bottom line I expect them to find their voice.

[emulatorloo]

7. The main problem with the protests is that you need to have an airline ticket to go thru security

I don't think this occured to the 'organizers' You can't just walk up and say "I want to opt out".

Besides that not everybody is asked to go thru the scanner. Seems like the conventional wisdom is that everyone is required to go through the scanner, that is not the case.

So you can't do a big dramatic thing about opting out if there is nothing for you to opt out of.

Additionally I got this weird feeling that some of the organizers had never actually been in a airport recently to go thru security either. People who are flying just want to get thru it as soon as possible, because you have to go through security so you can catch your flight.