Lies, damn lies and social media
Mark Twain once said that a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. If Twain were alive today he’d certainly love the internet. Day after day I see things get posted on social media sites and then instantly shared without anyone knowing if they are even remotely true. Some people call this “fake news”, I just call it irresponsible.
The most glaring recent example is what happened to United Airlines last week. Two teenaged girls were trying to board a flight in Denver when the United worker at the gate told them they were not dressed appropriately. The young women were wearing what are known as “leggings” which are best described as those thin tight pants women often wear to the gym. Whatever exchange was happening between the young ladies and the United employee was between them but that didn’t stop a woman named Shannon Watts, founder of the group “Moms Demand Action”, from taking to Twitter and telling the world (or at least her 34,000 followers), “A United gate agent isn’t letting girls in leggings get on a flight because spandex is not allowed.” She continued tweeting accusing the airline of “sexualizing” the young women and saying young boys wouldn’t be treated this way.
Understand that Ms. Watts wasn’t part of the actual conversation between the airline employee and the girls she just witnessed them being turned away and jumped to a conclusion without having all the facts. Before the truth could get its pants on, or in this case leggings, her tweet caused a social media firestorm and had people all over sharing both their outrage and her post and demanding an apology to from United Airlines. Several celebrities jumped in which made the story go even more viral.
When I saw this pop up on my Facebook feed my blood pressure went up as well. I thought, “What the heck is wrong with United. I’ve seen people wear far less or worse on a flight. Why are they picking on these young girls?” For a split second I even thought about sharing the stories I saw flooding my newsfeed but then something happened. The logical part of my brain, the part that makes the important decisions and is seldom connected to emotion, raised its hand and said, “Um, John, excuse me. John? Does this make sense to you at all?” The answer was, no, no it did not. So instead of sharing the story I waited to see if the truth would shake out and within a few hours it did. United did turn the teenagers away for wearing leggings because they were flying with what are known as a “pass traveler” tickets. What the heck are those? Well those are free tickets given to a family member or friend of a United employee which allows you to fly for free if there is an extra seat open. There’s just one catch. The tickets come with a dress code and “leggings” were on the list of things you can’t wear if you want to fly for free with these passes. If you pay for your ticket you can wear whatever you want but if you fly with the freebies from United you have to play by the rules. It’s that simple. These facts were conveniently left out of all the stories that spread like wildfire on social media. Now listen, I get it. Telling two teenagers they can’t wear leggings is stupid but I don’t run United Airlines. If you want to argue they should change their policy that’s one thing but remember it is their policy and if you find a dress code such a problem then don’t take the free tickets.
What bothered me even more than the initial response to this leggings mess was that even when people knew the truth about why United Airlines politely asked the young women to change their clothes people wouldn’t drop it. Some were still accusing United of having a sexist attitude. I point out again it was just a dress code that came with taking free airline tickets. If someone told me they’d give me free tickets to Denver I’d wear a tux on the flight. My point for going on and on about this is just a word of caution. When you see something on social media that sounds far-fetched maybe you should hold off on sharing it until all the facts are known. The problem with social media isn’t “fake news” it is gullible people. We used to be smarter than this. Time was you saw a photo of Bigfoot fishing with an extraterrestrial trying to catch the Loch Ness monster on the cover of “The National Inquirer” you laughed; you didn’t share it with your friends. Put bluntly if you keep sharing half-baked stories the truth will eventually come out, you’ll look like a fool and won’t have a leggings to stand on. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
John Gray is a news anchor on WXXA-Fox TV 23 and ABC’S WTEN News Channel 10. His column is published every Wednesday. Email johngray@ fox23news.com.