chollie

You take great care to point out that there were (and probably still are) inappropriate posts on the TSA Blog by both TSOs and non-TSOs.

You miss (or ignore) my point.

It is a TSA Blog, in spite of Bob's occasional qualifications. The average citizen who finds his/her way to the Blog will read it as an official blog sponsored and maintained by the agency, allegedly with the goal of keeping the public informed and continuing a dialogue with the public.

The average citizen who finds his/her way to the Blog (and I know a few, folks who do not know my opinions about TSAs misconduct) do not walk away talking about inappropriate comments from the public or about the 'gems' of information they manage to ferret out. Instead, they walk away with the perception that inappropriate posts by self-identified TSOs, on a TSA website, posts that are unchallenged by a TSA moderator or fellow TSOs, represent the agency as a whole.

They do not walk away with the perception that inappropriate posts by pax represent all pax.

This perception is only re-inforced every time a TSA spokesperson responds to a incident involving clearly inappropriate actions by a TSO with boilerplate nonsense about 're-training' and 'high standards' and 'procedures followed' (particularly when subsequent investigations sometimes reveal this is not true).

I can understand you not liking a double standard - folks automatically assuming pax are always right, TSA is always wrong. But the reverse is also true - TSA is not always right and the pax is not always wrong. But in a certain sense, every TSO in uniform, even if off-duty, represents the agency. Every TSO who witnesses misconduct and does not speak up tacitly supports the misconduct by his/her silence.

TSOs are, by TSA's own repeated statements, trained and paid to be professionals concerned with the safety of the public. Rudeness, retaliatory conduct, allowing personal irritation to take over - these compromise the task at hand.

There is no requirement for a pax to behave in a 'professional' manner in order to fly. Unfortunately, there is all too often a functional requirement for a pax to swallow pride, accept retaliatory conduct or clear indisputable violations of SOP or risk not flying, get labelled a 'domestic terrorist', lose Pre-check privileges or worse.