Southwest Against Master Baiting
While the rest of the airline industry is terrified of any liquid or gel more than three ounces in volume, Southwest Airlines is laying the smackdown on inappropriate dress.
After threatening to kick a female passenger off of a flight earlier this year for wearing clothing which was deemed to revealing, another passenger was almost booted for a suggestive t-shirt. It read: Master Baiter… yes a double entendre for both fishing and a certain private activity.
C’mon, is this really such a serious offence? Support freedom of absurd speech and buy your very own master baiter t-shirt here
Southwest Airlines said it will apologize to a passenger who was told he would be removed from a flight if he didn’t change clothes, the second time in recent months the budget carrier has been forced to do so.
Joe Winiecki, of Largo, Florida, boarded a Southwest flight in Columbus, Ohio, wearing a fictional fishing shop T-shirt which featured the words, "Master Baiter."
Winiecki, who was traveling home, said he was in his seat when an employee told him he had to change his T-shirt, turn it inside out, or get off the plane.
Winiecki protested that the airline was infringing on his right to free speech, but changed his shirt fearing he would miss the flight and a day’s work.
Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said Friday the employee made a mistake because the Dallas-based airline does not have a dress code.
The airline apologized this summer after a college student wearing a denim miniskirt and a sweater over a tank top was told to change her outfit or get off a flight departing from San Diego.
Kyla Ebbert, who was 23, told the story on "The Dr. Phil Show." She was read a printed apology from Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly on the show.
Ebbert was allowed to fly after agreeing to alter her outfit. The airline offered Ebbert free tickets and tried to make light of the mix-up in humorous advertising.
Ebbert declined the tickets.
After the Ebbert encounter, Southwest President Colleen Barrett sent employees a generally worded e-mail reminding them that the airline has no dress code, Mainz said.
Southwest, like other airlines, has language in its contract of carriage that states it reserves the right to deny service to customers whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive."
Airline officials have discussed giving employees more specific examples of what is considered lewd or offensive, Mainz said.
source Tags: dumb news, southwest airlines, master baiter, double entendre, censorship, absurd language
10 Comments
I, for one, applaud SW airlines for kicking a guy off their plane with an obviously sexually explicit T-shirt saying “master baiter.” Come on, how is that appropriate in public?
Then on top of it all, the guy demonstrates what a red-necked idiot he is by babbling on about free speech in this country. For all you other ignorant Americans out there the first amendment prohibits THE GOVERNMENT from abridging our right to free speech. Private business can do what ever they want. Last time I checked the airlines were still not government owned….yet!
My wife told me about this, cause I have the same shirt, but when I was googling around I came across this! this is funny
THIS T-SHIRT HAS BEEN CENSORED FOR YOUR IN-FLIGHT ENJOYMENT
found at: http://www.f*ckoffshirts.com/this-tshirt-been-censored-your-inflight-enjoyment-p-1663.html?osCsid=978650a1634fe6a869e74067646c0f35
there were a couple more this guy have there but I liked this one the best.
Robert kelley – That’s the part everyone forgets. The first amendment only applies to restrictions by GOVERNMENT. They are fully within their rights to kick him off and give him his money back.
[...] This story about Southwest Airlines trying to boot off a passenger wearing a shirt reading "Master Baiter" has been the most popular post on the site for a few days. Now weigh in and tell us what you think. [...]
I think Southwest Airlines was well within its rights to ban this T-shirt. I’m just disappointed that the President of Southwest apologized and stated the employee had made a mistake. SW has a written policy that the employees can make a decision to ban lewd, obscene or patently offensive subject matter. I’d say a T-shirt naming sexual self-stimulation fits into that category! And, how can the President of Southwest not realize it?
Sure, the T-shirt is funny as a play on words. It’d be perfect attire for a party of people in their 20s, and the rest of us older folks (40s) can get a chuckle out of it. But, there’s a time and a place for everything. For the parents of young children who can read, and perhaps for even older people (70s+), this is likely to be offensive and embarrassing.
Of course, the lame, immature guy who wore it probably has plenty of time to engage in the behavior he’s showing off on his T-shirt – as what self-respecting person would want to be romantically involved with him?
Southwest Executives need to get a spine and stop caving-in to complaints that the employees are going too far in banning offensive clothing. In this case, I believe the employee was definitely correct – particularly based on the Airline’s general policy statement!
Cmon people, are you all neutered? Southwest is not stupid, if they get away with that kind of garbage then they will be boycotted, badmouthed and will lose customers. Who cares what shirt he has on ? no one kicks off the person with extreme Body odor, or the fat guy who is constantly breathing/snorting right in your ear as he sits behind/next to you. these things are personally offensive to some but bearable(?) to others. and whats wrong with masturbators ? Im sure you did it as a young teenager, and if you didnt thats probably why you have this super conservative, virgin until 25, afraid of your own naked body type of view. Get into the new millenium.
John, I liked your idea a lot! Why dont you boycott them.
But I bet you wont!
True, I probably wouldnt boycott them, that is if I actually flew anywhere at all. I love to drive and havent flown in years. Nonetheless, bad press for any company causes consumers to think twice before using their services. No company wants that, especially in this vicious airline market.
[...] We here at Simply Dumb have been among the many avid internet users to notice Southwest’s policy of kicking passengers off flights that the on-board staff feel are inapprop…. [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2008
Contact:
John J. Tormey III, Esq.: ‘jtormey@optonline.net’, 1-212-410-4142
Tom Sullivan, “Quiet Rockland”: 1-845-480-1088
“QUIET ROCKLAND” CALLS FOR NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Rockland County, NY – March 12, 2008:
Aero-activist group Quiet Rockland of Rockland County, New York, enraged over “callous criminal disregard for safety and human life” demonstrated by Southwest Airlines (NYSE: “LUV”) and the FAA, today called for: (1) a nationwide traveler and consumer boycott of Southwest, and (2) a federal criminal investigation of Southwest and “failed regulator” FAA to be spear-headed by the United States Attorney General and a special prosecutor.
Said John J. Tormey III, Esq., attorney and Quiet Rockland co-founder: “The persons that should be flying Southwest at this point, should be only those referred by Doctor Kevorkian. Although the depraved Southwest spin-machine audaciously ‘assures’ us Southwest’s six (6) cracked-fuselage aircraft were “never a safety problem”, Southwest should tell that to the victims of the 1988 Aloha Airlines disaster. There, metal fatigue on an aging Boeing 737 caused 18 feet of fuselage to be ripped off the plane causing grievous injuries and loss of life. House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar in his press conference Saturday, posted on “www.cspan.org”, presented detailed evidence incriminating Southwest and “Bobby” Sturgell’s failed FAA. The incriminating events occurred while “Bobby” Sturgell was Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the FAA. On Saturday, Representative Oberstar thereupon rightfully excoriated the aero-perps for their long-standing “tombstone mentality”. Although criminal and morally reprehensible, and now apparent after a many-month detailed Congressional investigation, Southwest and FAA are clearly in the insalubrious business of making those tombstones happen, in addition to simply reacting to those tombstones post facto.
“As recently as last year, Southwest Airlines, with the complicity of supposed federal regulator FAA, on at least 47 of Southwest’s Boeing 737 aircraft, on between 1,451 and 60,000 flights, over a period of two-and-one-half years, deliberately put approximately 200,000 or more unsuspecting travelers in harm’s way – making them fly in un-inspected, non-compliant, aged, and in some cases fuselage-cracked commercial aircraft. Southwest knew the names and faces of their potential victims. Southwest gladly took their money, and for that matter at this point Southwest owes each of them at least a rebate in full of their ticket prices. This was not mere negligence. Irrespective of what forensic lesser charge might technically ultimately apply once further Congressional investigation concludes, the acts and omissions of Southwest and collaborator FAA were tantamount to attempted murder, on a massive scale.
“This WILL not stand.
“Quiet Rockland asks and encourages those Southwest employees tired of subscribing to their company’s tombstone culture, to leave their sinking airship now to find other and better employ at a responsible airline that actually acknowledges the dignity of the individual human traveler. We further ask every American consumer to now act in solidarity – cancel all flights and other business with Southwest – boycott the airline which we today re-name “Air Kevorkian” – and just say “No” to Southwest, to FAA, and to the greed of the aeromercantile complex that continually and habitually puts profits over people’s lives. And, as to Southwest stockholders? Vote your conscience”.#