Drudge Fought The TSA… And Drudge Won

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
Monday, November 29, 2010




Despite the establishment media presiding over another mass hoax in claiming that Americans were completely happy with invasive airport security measures, contrary to polls showing a majority in opposition, and that the national opt out day was a failure, the fact that the TSA was forced to change its policy by mothballing naked body scanners and curtailing aggressive pat downs clearly goes to show that the man who almost single-handedly drove the issue, Matt Drudge, fought the TSA and he won.
The big networks and the so-called progressive borg hive, who instantly tried to spin the lack of delays at airports over Thanksgiving as proof that the opt-out protest had failed, conveniently failed to mention the fact that major airports across the country had deliberately mothballed their naked body scanners in a crass PR ploy aimed at deflating the momentum behind the demonstration.
Early reports began to pour in from Twitter users who said that body scanner machines were roped off and out of use in airports such as LAX, Seattle, San Jose and Columbus, Ohio. They also said that pat downs had reverted back to the standard procedure and were not the new grope downs that the TSA had announced a couple of weeks before.
The New Jersey Star-Ledger subsequently reported that, “The majority of Newark’s full-body scanners were idle throughout much of the day, depriving most passengers of the chance to opt out of the controversial screening procedure even if they had wanted to.”
At the nation’s busiest airport, Atlanta-Hartsfield, there was,”limited, if any, use of the controversial full-body scanners,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Later reports confirmed that, the TSA had “backed down and resorted to using the old screening procedures — metal detectors and less-intrusive pat-downs.

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In addition, many people took part in the protest by avoiding airports altogether. Traffic was jammed on the highways, with the Massachusetts Turnpike playing host to a 30-mile hold-up.
The establishment media echo chamber attempted to pull a hoax by claiming that the vast majority of Americans were completely happy with having their genitals groped by federal goons and naked pictures taken of their children. In reality, after Drudge relentlessly drove the issue, polls of Americans that were previously in support of body scanners had reversed dramatically and the ACLU received an avalanche of new complaints.
The nationwide scanner shut down proved two things.
1) Big Sis’s security talk is nothing more than hot air. If the scanners were so imperative to keep us safe from terrorists then why did the TSA turn them off in a vain effort to score political points?
2) Drudge won. The DHS and TSA were forced to change their policies on both naked body scanners and invasive pat downs – both of which were curtailed over Thanksgiving. Whether such a change stays in place remains to be seen – the war will undoubtedly rage on, but there can be little doubt that Drudge won the battle.
As Politico’s Ben Smith highlighted, “There’s no doubt about who won on this issue: Matt Drudge chose it and drove it, illustrating both his continued power and his great sense of the public mood, and it now seems a matter of time until he gets results.”
Indeed, the whole issue underscores once again why the establishment media is so petrified of Drudge’s power to direct the nationwide rebellion against big government. One man with a website was able to take on the might of the multi-billion dollar corporate media industry and the federal government for whom they act as apologists, and in doing so stir the next great wave of resistance against tyranny.
The establishment continually berates Drudge and attempts to assert that he has lost the power to influence the national discourse, even as the Drudge Report continues to smash its traffic record year after year.
As Matt Lewis writes, Drudge has helped to spark a new movement, confounding establishment media pundits who have repeatedly belittled his influence.

Not long ago, of course, there was great debate as to whether or not Drudge even still had it. As Barack Obama was besting John McCain in 2008, many observers wondered whether or not The Drudge Report — which a decade earlier had pushed the Monica Lewinsky scandal into the headlines — had lost a step.
At the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz debated whether or not Drudge still had the clout to drive media coverage. And TPM’s Greg Sargent also argued that Drudge’s influence was over-stated. He was not alone.
Of course, as the TSA rebellion illustrates, Drudge remains incredibly powerful and uniquely important.

The wider issue now becomes not just what Big Sis is subjecting Americans to at airports, but how this same invasive and unconstitutional technology is now being increasingly used on the streets.
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As Homeland Security extends its tentacles more and more into our private lives, the rebellion against Big Sis will only accelerate, and Drudge as ever will be at the forefront of that charge, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of the castrated, corrupted, distrusted, and increasingly irrelevant establishment media.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show