Last Weekend, a 10-Second Airport Delay Went Viral

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Today the Washington Post brings us the perfect tale of modern viral hysteria. Apparently Ashley Brandt had a problem with her DC driver’s license at the Phoenix airport, and social media went wild after her boyfriend tweeted about it. Here is the entire story:

According to Brandt, an agent with the Transportation Security Administration took a look at her D.C. license and began to shake her head. “I don’t know if we can accept these,” Brandt recalled the agent saying. “Do you have a U.S. passport?’

Brandt was dumbfounded, and quickly grew a little scared….Brandt says the agent yelled out to a supervisor, working in adjacent security line. Are D.C. licenses valid identification?

Brandt says she could hear the response, “Yeah, we accept those.”

And that was it. A TSA agent was unsure about something, and then cleared it up in a few seconds. And the twitterverse went crazy.

I get it: we all hate TSA, and TSA agents sometimes do dumb things. And social media encourages mob reactions based on 140-character rants. But honestly, folks. Chill. Not every minor inconvenience in the world deserves to go viral.

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Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

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