"Nic" claimed "TSA agents took my son"
On Thursday night, a popular “mommy blogger” who goes by the name “Nic”, started posting to her Twitter account about her terrifying experience at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Friday on her blog “My Bottles Up” she claimed that, TSA agents took her son.
My son was taken from me.
Taken.
My son was taken from me by the TSA agents at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport yesterday.
Due to the reputation-based nature of Twitter and blogs, her story spread like wildfire on Twitter and in the blogosphere.
For most organizations, this would amount to a major public relations disaster. However, for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) they had prepared for this type of challenge. Former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley had asked for a blog so that the agency could get “its side of the story out” without having to use the traditional methods of press releases and media interviews. So, in January 2008 TSA launched its blog with a great deal of skepticism from the public and media.
Shortly after the launch, “Blogger Bob” was recruited from the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to be TSA’s fulltime blogger-in-residence. The culture at TSA was such that when Blogger Bob suggested using Twitter to augment and support the blog, he was given the green light. He tweets under the Twitter account, TSABlogTeam.
The point of this is that it is too late to start using social media tools like blogs and Twitter in the middle of a PR crisis. You must already be familiar with the tools, the social media customs, and have established yourself as honest and transparent.
You must be willing to admit when you’ve made a mistake, learned a new lesson, and be willing to stand up for yourself when someone is wrongly accusing you of something that is simply not true – as was the case with Mommy Blogger “Nic”. Over time, you establish a reputation and (hopefully) credibility.
What really happened at the ATL checkpoint?
Since Blogger Bob and others at TSA use and monitor the social media networks, it did not take long for TSA to catch wind of the mommy blogger’s allegation. TSA reviewed the security tapes to find out what really happened. Did TSA agents take her child away from her for over five minutes as she had claimed?
Absolutely not. On Saturday, TSA posted a new blog story that contradicted her account and posted an edited video to prove the point. When several commenters questioned TSA’s edited account, later that evening TSA posted on YouTube the unedited versions from nine different camera angles.
An anonymous commenter on the TSA blog outlined the events like this:
- 11:01:39 through metal detector
- 11:02:00 asked to wait past metal detector. Her stuff is backing up the conveyor. The mom is visibly annoyed at this point.
- 11:02:48-3:00 other lady moves her stuff for her
- 11:03:30 the mom is yelling and waving to get TSA’s attention
- 11:03:49 Female TSA agent lets her out of the first holding area
- 11:04:07 the mom is yelling
- 11:04:11 covers mouth, looks like she’s going to cry
- 11:04:32 sitting in the screening area with son on her lap
- 11:04:04 TSA supervisor (presumably) asks her to calm down, TSA is moving her stuff near her
- 11:05:28 Male TSA agent screens the kid while he’s sitting on his mom’s lap
- 11:05:42 the mom puts the son in the stroller
- 11:06:15-6:50 The female TSA agent screens the mom. The son is in the stroller 3 feet in front of the mom. The mom removes something from her shoe and puts it on the table.
- 11:07:20-9:35 The female TSA agent rescreens the mom
- 11:09:35 the mom is cleared to go. She loads her stuff and leaves at 11:10:29
To summarize: She begins to get annoyed in 30 seconds, and starts yelling after 2 minutes. All told, she had to wait 8 minutes exactly.
Notable discrepancies — the son was not picked up by the TSA agent. The son was not moved out of sight by the TSA agent. And the lady didn’t make any secret cell phone calls.
Faced with the incontrovertible video evidence, Nic issued this (rather weak) apology on her blog.
Other bloggers have taken up TSA’s defense and suggested that she was an attention whore, others that mommy blogger was looking to make a quick buck. Personally, I think the woman is mentally unstable. She recounts in her story how she is subject to massive panic attacks: “I had an emergency Xanax in my jeans pocket. I always carry an emergency Xanax in my pocket. The result of severe anxiety. I took the pill, but it did very little. I was so traumatized that it would’ve taken probably 4 Xanax to get my blood pressure back down to a normal level.” Clearly this is a person with issues.
To sum things up, whatever the motivation is of someone who wants to “dis” you, your brand, and your reputation– you must be using social media to quickly respond. In the case of the TSA, they had the video evidence which made for a conclusive rebuttal of her fabricated story.
Neil Bonner works in the information technology field for the Transportation Security Administration. His focus is on mobile, Rapid Applications Development, Social Media and collaboration platforms. He manages a portfolio of applications that are internal and citizen-facing. In 2011 he was recognized as a “
neil [at] michelangelo.com
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One other point I should have added: You can see from the http://twitter.com/TSABlogTeam twitter stream that Blogger Bob was monitoring the tweets of those that were RT (re-tweeting) the false allegations. After the TSA blog post went up with the checkpoint video, Blogger Bob used Twitter to contact each person who RT’d the original allegations with a link to the TSA blog post.
That is the kind of follow-up that is necessary to manage your online reputation in the age of social media.
-Neil
> it is too late to start using social media tools like blogs and Twitter in the middle of a PR crisis. You must already be familiar with the tools
The above quote sums it all up. The tools and skills need to be in place ahead of time. I didn’t know the background on “Blogger Bob”. When I was reading about how he was hired full time I thought “How much do they pay him?/How did the TSA get convinced to make that appropriate move?”
This incident proves the value of online engagement. Had TSA not had a blog who knows what kind of story/PR nightmare this could have turned into.
Thanks for the mention Neil. Yes, I believe most of us blog for some sort of attention or to feel a connection, and I admit to being a little crass and controversial by calling that attention whoring, but in this case this
woman was definitely looking for something.
Whether it was just attention or to sell her story and kick start her blog as an actual moneymaker, the simple conclusion is, that to attempt to do it in this manner and not even back down when you have been proven wrong beyond doubt indicates that something deeper seated, than the need for attention or the desire for money, is wrong.
I hope she gets whatever help she needs and that other bloggers learn a little something from this too :)
Why isn’t she charged with a crime?
Hi JJ. Making up a false story about a government agency and posting it on social networks isn’t a criminal offense. If she made false statements to federal law enforcement personnel — that would be a crime. But lying to your friends on your blog is not.
She will have to pay the price of losing her credibility and trust among her “friends”. Probably enough punishment. She should get some therapy, I think; as she obviously has a lot of mental issues.
-Neil
What a pathetic individual. Yes there are some bad stories but to make one up like that is pretty twisted. I hope they put her ass in jail!
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