Sorry, TSA-haters. Michael Yon Isn't a TSA Victim, Just an Unreliable Reporter

According to recent coverage, Michael Yon is very quietly recanting his original claim that TSA handcuffed him for refusing to answer questions about his income.  A blog in the American Thinker is a classic.  The author is so determined to trash TSA that he begins his article this way:

Give me one good reason to buy a ticket on any domestic airline in the United States. Death in the family? I'll walk. Business trip? Let's try video conferencing. Vacation? Go Amtrak!

Michael Yon - a guy I've dubbed this generation's Ernie Pyle - was placed in handcuffs at the Seattle airport, not because he showed up on a terrorist's watch list but because he refused to divulge to the TSA bullies how much money he made.

With that off his chest, the author admits that the only problem with the rant is that TSA had nothing to do with Yon's experience, after which the author returns immediately to trashing TSA for something it didn't do.

Michael discovered later that it was not TSA but rather Customs that was asking questions no American should have to answer. You have to wonder how bad things would have been if the underwear bomber had succeeded.

And, Michael, for your information, Customs and Border Protection officers have been asking people about their money for, oh, a century or two.  Carrying $10,000 across the border without declaring it is a crime, to give one example of why they might be interested.  And all that time you spent in Afghanistan?  I for one would like to know that people who say they spent months in Afghanistan reporting on the conflict were actually doing that, not participating in fight on the wrong side.  And I would hope they'd ask those questions no matter what last name the traveler has and no matter how Anglo the traveler looks. 

After all, a chip that big probably has to be declared.

But the incident also raises questions about Michael Yon's reporting.  CBP's uniforms are black, not blue, and they don't say TSA anywhere.  CBP meets you when your plane lands, not before it takes off, and it doesn't put everyone's bags through an x-ray or step you through a magnetometer.  Instead, the officer asks you for your passport, and says "Welcome home."  It's not that hard to tell the difference between CBP and TSA officers, especially if you get close enough to them to, you know, refuse to answer their questions and get handcuffed. 

I've been assuming that Yon's reportage from Aghanistan is (a) great stuff and (b) a harbinger of what journalism will become.  Now I doubt (a) and fear (b).  Really, this is the Internet at its worst -- recursive broadcasts of a story that gets everyone's juices flowing and turns out to be utterly bogus.

Come on, Michael, the main stream media would have published a very clear correction by now.  That's the least you can do. 

 

Comments

[Rob M.]

Uhm. No where in the blogpost you link to does is say Michael Yon is recanting, quietly or otherwise. Nor does it make any claim that the author ever actually talked to Michael (I doubt he has).

Mr Yon's facebook page was unclear as to who put him in handcuffs but he never said TSA did it. Others jumped to conclusions which he then corrected on the same facebook page (yesterday). I don't see him mentioning uniform colors, nothing.

If you are going to worry about the future of "journalism" it would help if you based your worries on the source you are complaining about instead of some second hand analysis on an unrelated blog.

Just seems like you are trying to pick a fight that is unnecessary. Good luck with that.

[John]

In fact, he says specifically that he was acosted by "border bullies" in his original Facebook post.

" Michael Yon Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies."

In fact, on his Facebook page I can find no mention of TSA at all. "border bullies" seems to indicate to me that he was fully aware that he was dealing with officers from "border patrol".

Is there any indication he was carrying more than $10,000 in cash with him? If that was the case, that certainly would raise eyebrows (as did his travel history to troubled countries), but I fail to see how one's income has anything to do with that. As a long-time devotee to American Express, the amount of cash I have on my person bears positively no relation to my annual income. Regardless, I haven't read anywhere that Yon was carrying more than $10,000 in cash on him.

Between your misleading statements and your patently false claims about Yon's reporting, I anxiously await your "very clear correction".

[Stewart Baker]

I'm relying on the statement that "Michael discovered later that it was not TSA but rather Customs that was asking questions." That sure sounds like Yon first blamed TSA and only later "discovered" that he was questioned by CBP. But I agree that the Facebook entry doesn't name TSA. If that's the only place Yon reported on the encounter, then I've been too hard on him here.

[Stewart Baker]

On the other hand, here's an "exclusive interview" in which Yon clearly blames TSA:

"Regarding the incident in Seattle, Yon was adamant the TSA agents had overstepped their bounds: “If I am the guy on that passport and I don’t have any contraband in my luggage, it is a matter for the FBI, not the TSA.”

“TSA people are out of control,” he said. “They are not doing their jobs, they are harassing people, creating animosity. They ask you ‘what time is your connective flight?’ and they bully you until you miss the flight.”

http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/05/exclusive-interview-military-blogger-michael-yon-detained-by-tsa-in-seattle-airport/

[chaos]

Butthurt owner of this blog makes a butthurt post whining about how much his butt hurts, whines about how much inaccuracy hurts his butt, tries to smear the credibility of Michael Yon because his butt hurts, does so in the incredibly condescending (as in, if he was standing in front of you talking to you the way he wrote this post you'd bend his nose in a new direction) way only butthurt losers on the internet can manage, and manages to be inaccurate himself.

Why don't you hang it up Mr. Baker. At the least, this is one blog I'll never be returning to.

[Rob M.]

You're not new to the internet, and I know you are an intelligent person so lets work through this in a logic fashion.

"Exclusive interview"? Maybe. Maybe not. Most of the article seemed to just be regurgitating the facebook info or things said elsewhere. The rest seemed to be snippet quotes lacking proper context. If there was an interview it would be preferable to see the actual interview transcript. Video of him in context even better.

At the moment the only in context and known to be actually directly from Mr. Yon is his facebook page.

Something happened at SeaTec. Mr. Yon could be 100% right or wrong, but everyone is jumping to conclusions. Security video from the CDP inteview would clear all of this up. A clear statement from Mr. Yon would be nice as well.

But for now trying to crucify a guy via secondary sources and poorly written "interview" blogposts is just as intellectually honest as all the people who jumped to conclusions about the TSA in the first place.