Mommy Blogger v. The TSA: A Reputation Management Case Study

Today’s case study in how social media has changed the game in modern reputation management comes to use from a reporter-friend at a major daily in New York City, who watched this scenario play out over the weekend completely under the radar of the traditional media.

It began on Friday, October 16, with a blog post headlined “tsa agents took my son” authored by “Nic,” who describes herself as a 28- year-old freelance writer and the mom of 16-month-old son. Nic is a mommy blogger who authors the My Bottle’s Up blog.

Her post about the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) offers a harrowing account accusing airport security at Atlanta’s international airport of taking her infant away for 10 minutes during a security search. It was a gripping story; the worst nightmare of mothers everywhere. And, given that the TSA does not make a lot of friends in the course of performing its duties, the post exploded virally on Twitter and among sympathetic bloggers nationally.

Folks were outraged and the post garnered 316 comments, including many folks who shared their own claims of mistreatment at the hands of the TSA.

But here’s where things get interesting. It turns out that the TSA has its own blog. Who knew?

By 7 p.m. on the evening of the 16th, “Blogger Bob,” an author on the TSA site described as a father of two, had posted a response to Nic’s “emotional” story – and posted the actual video of her trip through security. “After watching the video footage, you'll see the video clearly shows that this individual was never separated from her baby by TSA. You'll also see that a lot of the other claims are also unfounded,” Blogger Bob wrote.

By Saturday morning, the tables had turned. Many of the same social media channels that had initially empathized with Nic and taken her allegations at face value now turned the scrutiny on her, asking rightly how she could reconcile her claims with the TSA’s visual evidence.

For a time, “My Bottle’s Up” was “temporarily shut down.” It soon re-emerged with a post entitled “my apologies”, in which Nic defended and explained her original account but noted that she felt it is time to move on. The apology was not directed at the TSA, but toward those seeking an explanation. (As of this morning, the “apology” post has drawn 133 comments, although the blog’s commenting function appears to have been disabled.)

In a 36-hour span, damaging written accusations were hurled and then rebutted with video evidence – all spreading at the speed of light online and focused on two blogs that most people had never heard of on October 15. The traditional media may or may not catch up to the story today, but already thousands of people have heard of it and are sharing it with each other.

This is the new normal of reputation management. If you don’t know what’s being said about you online (good or bad), you cannot know whether or not you should respond. And if you do not have the smarts and the appropriate tools to respond online when you must, then you are and will remain at a serious disadvantage in the modern flow of news and information.

The TSA was the only party who could “win” or “lose” in this scenario. It knows it is never going to win any popularity contests. But it defended itself, at least to “a draw,” and it served notice that it does not take lightly claims of traveler abuse.

The one downside for the TSA? As our reporter-friend wisely noted: “The next time someone complains of TSA mistreatment and it's true, they will have a hard time fighting demands for the release of video.”

~ Ed Cafasso, Managing Director

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