Originally Posted by jkhuggins

And why do you think that is? (It's an honest question.)

Look, people phone in story ideas to TV stations and newspapers all the time. I'm sure that some of them are utterly preposterous, and are dismissed out of hand. I'm sure that others of them are viewed as legitimate, but don't make it to print/air because they're viewed as not being as important as other stories.

You can write off an individual blogger "bad TSA" story as a crank with an axe to grind. But for that story to make it to a media news organization means that someone's made a determination (flawed as it may be) that the story has some merit, and is worth investigating.



People like government when government provides them with a recognized service; people dislike government when they impose an obligation upon them. Hence, senior citizens love the Social Security program because they get money out of it, while young people hate the Social Security program because they have to pay the taxes to fund it. And, of course, it's contradictory ... people love government when it provides them services, but despise government when it assesses taxes to pay for those services.

So, what does TSA need to do in order to be liked? Two simple things: provide a service that people want, and convince the public that in fact they in fact are providing a service that they want.

Nobody argues that airline travel needs security. But it's not clear to most of the public that the services TSA provides are, in fact, security. Which of the two things above aren't happening is a matter for debate.