Not content with its Orwellian brand, TSA contacted SF Weekly demanding they stop using the below scanner image and instead use TSA’s own “approved” images. What is the TSA good at? They suck at security, they suck at customer service and now they suck at public relations. What are these people good for?
We knew the TSA was sensitive about this whole scanner thing, but not this sensitive: This morning, SF Weekly got a phone call and a wrist-slap from the Transportation Security Administration’s press department. It turns out the TSA doesn’t like the image of body scans we used with our piece last week about how the scanners do not bombard people with an unhealthy dose of radiation.The call was a bit odd coming from a government agency being widely accused of acting like Big Brother run amok. Especially when the story quoted U.C. San Francisco radiation experts defending the scanners as safe. But I guess we could say the agency’s true feelings about this public relations debacle have now been laid bare.
The woman on the phone told SF Weekly that they were not accurate images of the scanner, and urged us to either indicate to readers that those aren’t accurate pictures or use the officially approved scanner images.
We called TSA regional spokesman Nico Melendez for clarification, and he told us the agency is simply trying to keep the information given to the public about the scanner images accurate. “We’re not monitoring, but when we come across [an inaccurate image] we try to let them know it might be misleading.”
He says the photo we used is from a press tour several years ago of the TSA’s technology center in New Jersey, which, much to the TSA’s chagrin, is still being widely reused by media. “That is the image with no privacy filter installed, absolutely not the image our officers see,” Melendez wrote in an email.
At this point, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to trust what the people at the TSA are telling us.
Note to TSA: “If you want us to trust you, quit lying to us.”
Freedom of the press is a bitch, isn’t it…
In the words of Rep Joe Wilson said to Obama, I say to TSA “YOU LIE”
I would like to see the TSA approved image, but I can’t find one. “Absolutely not the image our officer sees” my butt! First, it is the image created, even if not displayed, by the machine, so it does exist somewhere out there in the digital world. Second, um, all they’ve been doing is lying to us. Why should we believe them now?
Did i understand correctly? This is a TSA image they provided to the press. It shows what is possible with the scanner. They want us to believe they use a “privacy” filter, and the images can’t be stored or transmitted.
I call shenanigans!
If the TSA said the sun would rise tomorrow I’d want a second opinion.
How ’bout a scan showing Big Sis and that big strap-on she wears 24/7? Now that would be something to see.
TSA = Truthless Stupid Assholes
Why don’t they want that image to be used? If they’ve got nothing to hide, they’ve got nothing to worry about – well that’s what they always say to us!
Security theatre, wasting tax payer money, humilitation of the general public, and, finally, the butt of many jokes!
The only “privacy filter” is a blur on the face. They want to see your groin region since they are looking for underwear bombs, which of course they can’t even detect if a terrorist is even 5% competent.
“…That is the image with no privacy filter installed.” Oh. So, the image is accurate as shown, except there would be fuzziness over the facial features (the “privacy filter”) if it was being displayed on the TSO’s screen? Otherwise, the image is okay?
Really? Well, now … *that’s* reassuring.