Poll Finds Americans Think the TSA Is 'Doing a Good Job'

OverTheGeicoE writes "Why is it that airport security never seems to change in the United States? Perhaps it's because most Americans think the TSA is doing a 'good job,' according to a surprise Gallup poll, allegedly commissioned by no one but the kind editors at Gallup. The poll found that 54% of Americans believe the TSA is doing a good or excellent job, and that 57% have a good or excellent opinion of the agency. So why all the criticism? According to the article, criticism of the TSA comes primarily from 'Internet sites, where reporting standards are generally not at the same level as newspapers, where reporters are taught to consider what is told to them with skepticism and to seek responses to charges.' Furthermore, 'the TSA is put into a difficult situation when such charges are posted with little or no fact checking by reporters.' Other sources, of course, have different interpretations of Gallup's results, including questions about whether the poll was biased. If Americans secretly do love the TSA, that could explain why the recent whitehouse.gov petition failed to gather enough signatures for a 'response.' In fact, you'll find so little information about the petition remains on whitehouse.gov that you'll wonder if my link is correct. And these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along."

Comments

Real reason

[gander666]

Most of the people either don't travel by air, or travel very infrequently. Those of us who are road warriors are vastly more likely to hate the TSA with vehemence.

Re:Real reason

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

How many terrorists has the TSA caught?

If the number is large, then your question is relevant. Otherwise they are the magic rock that keeps the tigers away.

Re:Real reason

[thelexx]

Unlike you, for whom the threat of a jackboot on your neck for trying to go about your business as a free citizen has become comfortable.

Re:Real reason

[Baloroth]

So you're saying TSA don't do a good job? Then tell me how many buildings terrorists have flown airplanes into recently. Name one!

Oh no the TSA has done an excellent job. Mind, their job has very little to do with terrorists or safety, and everything to do with making Americans feel safe (with a nice side order of funneling money to certain congress/senatorial districts), and they have done a quite good job at that. After all, very few people want a government that looks like it isn't doing anything (Democrat or Republican), no matter what it actually should be, or is, doing.

Re:Real reason

[Daniel_Staal]

No, the TSA's job is to make Americans think they should feel safe, while actually making them feel less safe (by making sure they are aware of the 'danger'), thereby justifying the government to spend more money on safety against terrorists.

Re:Real reason

[mr1911]

I've traveled a fair amount and have had no issues with the TSA.

Well, certain individuals like to be used for sex in prison, but that doesn't mean raping everyone else is OK.

The TSA does not increase security. They are so busy looking for "oversize" 4oz bottles of shampoo that commonly show up that they miss guns that rarely show up. They are so busy patting down grandmas and children there is no time to evaluate those that may pose a threat.

It is OK to admit that the TSA makes you feel better because they are "doing something". However, it is completely false to believe they are doing anything useful.

Re:Real reason

[Grishnakh]

I think the point is, the Israelis are (probably quite justifiably) rather paranoid, so they're an extreme case. So if they, of all people, think the TSA is a joke, then they really are a joke. If anyone is going to go to extremes for anti-terrorism security, it's the Israelis, so if you're doing something to avoid terrorism that the Israelis aren't doing, then you're going too far.

Re:Real reason

[spire3661]

I remember when i was a kid, we would make fun of the Russians/Soviets because they had internal checkpoints, need for papers to travel, etc etc. It was a great source of pride for Americans to know they can travel freely, without the government watching over their shoulder. Im sorry you dont understand that.

Proof the system works!

[CuteSteveJobs]

> Most Americans think the TSA is doing a 'good job,'

Of course they do. That's the whole point of security theatre:

Security theater: term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater

54% is LOW

[gurps_npc]

If 54% think it's doing a 'good job', that means that 46% of Americans DON'T think it's doing a good job.

Fifty four percent is incredibly bad performance - it's a failure at a high school test.

What if I were to tell you that 55% of Americans think the IRS is doing a good job? It's certainly something I could believe - as the IRS audits less than 1% of Americans each year. Give something to compare it to. Otherwise, this is a puff article designed to make the TSA look good without any evidence WHATSOEVER.

Re:54% is LOW

[Missing.Matter]

But is the TSA actively preventing a 9/11 style attack, or is a 9/11 style attack prevented by reinforced cockpit doors and general passenger awareness that following a hijacker's demands no longer leads to a safe landing? Seriously, what kind of terrorist post 9/11 is going to get on a plane with a box cutter and not be torn asunder by a mob of angry passengers?

I traveled abroad for the first time recently to Japan. When I left for home, I didn't have to take off my shoes or my belt, didn't have to go through a full body scan, didn't have to be groped or fondled and generally humiliated. After we landed in LAX and I went through security again, I was standing around with a bunch of guys from my flight as we put on our belts and our shoes, generally redressing in the middle of a crowded airport terminal, and the one said to me "Welcome back to America." Indeed.

I see nothing strange here

[theRunicBard]

Most Americans think that evolution is controversial, that Algebra is too hard for them, that FOX is informative, and that the Earth revolves around Oprah. Indeed, nothing strange here. Move along.

Real reason is it depends on how you phrase it

[Geoffrey.landis]

The article has a significant bias that's expressed in the spin it puts on the result. Data showing 54% of Americans think the TSA does a "good or excellent job" is not "Americans secretly do love the TSA." It could just as accurately be summarized "Nearly half of Americans think TSA is not doing a good job."

Re:TSA does some good

[ibwolf]

Why have would-be terrorists resorted to increasingly bizarre and ineffective weapons - the shoe bomb, underwear bomb, and chemical cocktail? If they thought they could, obviously they'd just bring some hand grenades, and you can be darn sure those would work every time.

A lot of TSA criticism comes from people who want stringent security for "those people" but not for "us" - meaning white people, grannies, etc. But if you think about it for a few seconds you know where that leads.

Personally I would scale back the TSA and the nekkid scans, but as a value tradeoff, knowing it would come at some cost to security.

And planes were routinely hijacked with "hand grenades" prior to 9/11??? The simple truth is that pre 9/11 security measures were more than adequate to prevent a hijacker from bringing guns or powerful, easy to use explosives on board a plane. What they could do (and did) was bring smallish cutting implements (e.g. box cutters).

The problem with 9/11 wasn't in what the hijackers brought on board, but that they changed the rules of airplane hijacking. Prior to 9/11, if your plane was hijacked, you cooperated. That was the best way to ensure that you would survive.

The 9/11 hijackers changed the rules, but the passengers couldn't know that. On one of the four flight the passengers did learn this, sadly too late to prevent the takeover of the plane, but they did prevent the hijackers from killing more people on the ground.

An attack like 9/11 could only ever work once. Now we have reinforced cockpit doors and passengers will not cooperate with hijackers. Any attempt to hijack a plane, without using firearms at a minimum, will be stopped by the passengers who will assume that the hijackers mean to crash the plane.

All this means that the myriad of additional security nonsense on the ground is almost entirely security theater. Initially, this was mostly a case of ass covering (something needs to be done, this is something, ergo this must be done) but lately (as with the 'porno' scanners) this seems driven by a desire to line the pockets of private enterprise with taxpayer money.

tl;dr It is possible to scale back the TSA without sacrificing actual security.

You Don't Invalidate Basic Rights

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

With a popularity poll. A significant portion of that 54% of Americans, when read the Bill of Rights, believe you are describing an antithetical, Socialist manifesto.

How can you judge if the TSA is "doing a good job", if you are among the 44% of Americans who are unable to define the Bill of Rights?

I for one DO believe the TSA does a good job. That job is one of eroding fundamental protections of basic rights while enriching cronies.

Re:You Don't Invalidate Basic Rights

[GigG]

I wonder what percentage of that 54% have ever flown on an airline and more specifically since the TSA took over security?

Re:You Don't Invalidate Basic Rights

[bitingduck]

I wonder what percentage of that 54% have ever flown on an airline and more specifically since the TSA took over security?

Hard to decide whether to mod or post...

That's been my impression for quite a while now. If you fly with any regularity, the TSA looks like nothing more than security theater that just applies patch after patch every time someone is noticed to be trying to do something nefarious through one of their gaping security holes. I flew a lot both before and after sept 11, and have been either mid-trip or within a few days of a trip during a lot of the policy changes (e.g. only passengers past the security checkpoints, the 3 oz of fluid thing, underpants man, and more). They slap a patch on in reaction to an event, and while it looks like they're doing something, it really has no effect other than to increase cost and time involved, with no improvement in safety or security.

A while ago I came to the conclusion that all of this stuff is some sort of weird proxy for people's fear of flying. If we were really concerned about terrorists then public places would look a whole lot different than they do. The reason we don't have more terrorist attacks has nothing to do with all the TSA stuff and everything to do with there just not being very many terrorists.

EARLY-LIFE MIND CONTROL WORKS!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Interestingly, younger Americans âoehave significantly more positive opinions of the TSA than those who are older,â Gallup said, noting that 67% of people between 18 and 29 rate the agency as excellent or good.

"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny."
-- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 1

Re:TSA does some good

[Richy_T]

I've got news for you, while you're busy pointing at the evil, evil right wing, the usual suspects you vote for are busy implementing the same or worse.

Time to get over this red-team/blue-team bullshit or you are part of the problem.