Whoever asked yes it's true that the airlines are the ones who select you. I don't know who wrote up the guidelines they are using but man do they need to be revamped. A good portion of the selectees I see are completely unnecessary. My personal favorite is when dogs or cats are given boarding passes and they are marked as selectees. "Mr. Cabinpet? this is a joke right?" If only that were true.

But as I understand it there are situations when the airlines should de-select someone but often times they don't bother hitting F9 or whatever key is it to remove selectee status. So yeah direct some of your rage at them.