November 16, 2010

Assignment Desk II: Airport Security

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I just read what seems like the millionth article/blog post/rant about how stupid our airline security procedures are. The latest versions are inspired by the growing use of backscatter scanners that display a vague outline of what you look like naked; the increasingly intrusive patdowns that TSA is performing on passengers who refuse to go through the backscatter machines; and a cell phone video (no longer available, apparently) of a TSA agent trying to pat down a 3-year old girl going through a meltdown.

I’m glad to see these rants. Maybe eventually it means we’ll actually make some changes to our security theater. But what I haven’t seen is an informed take on what airport security ought to look like. We all hate taking off our shoes and pulling out our laptops and being limited to three ounces of liquid and not being allowed to meet people at the gate anymore — we hate all of that. But if it’s all useless, what should we do instead? Shouldn’t someone write that article?

UPDATE: More here.

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THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

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