The TSA has built a bit of a legacy annoying photographers. I have been hassled personally and I sometimes hear of others getting the same treatment.
Their official spokesman online, Blogger Bob, has responded to recent outrage about the following poster intended for an anti-terror awareness campaign.
The most important part of the blog post, aside from explaining the actual intention of the poster, is to say that photographers can be an asset to security.
In fact, many photographers would be prime candidates to use such vigilance programs to report suspicious activity since they’re extremely observant of their surroundings.
Bingo! The poster did a poor job characterizing the threat as someone doing something entirely legal and NOT suspicious — taking a photograph — when it instead could have called upon photographers to be an asset to the TSA. Wired’s response to this is “Nice save, Bob”
I have tried to make fun of this kind of anti-terror campaign before. The latest TSA attempt is almost funnier than my bogus ones! I clearly will have to try harder.
Old attempt:
New attempt:
Even if it isn’t funny, at least I managed to get a haiku in my poster.
Joe Pries Aviation points out that in Europe photographers are given a “great spot from where to safely photograph (free of charge).”
Does anyone see anything but pure terror here? Scary photo.