Posted by Orin Kerr:
Patriot Act Hysteria -- A Trip Down Memory Lane:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_03-2009_05_09.shtml#1241668622
Back in 2002 to 2005, it was common for the media to go nuts whenever
anyone claimed that anything bad that happened was related to the
Patriot Act. Someone would trip on a banana peel and announce that the
banana peel was put there by the Patriot Act, and TV and major
newspapers would go bonkers over the alleged abuse. ("Why is the
government using the Patriot Act to place banana peels on the
sidewalk?!?!? Why is it assaulting innocent Americans? This has
nothing to do with terrorism!!").
It was kind of fun to poke holes in these stories, in part because
it was so easy: All you needed to do was actually read the Patriot Act
and have some basic understanding of the laws that it amended. For
some reason I will probably never understand, this basic step occurred
to very few people actually talking about the Patriot Act to and in
the media. But so it goes.
Anyway, this trip down memory lane is inspired by a recent case of
Patriot Act hysteria -- the case of a 16-year old who was arrested for
making bomb threats at Purdue University. The FBI obtained an search
and arrest warrant for the 16 year-old, came to his parents home, and
arrested him and searched the home. He was arrested, formally charged,
appointed a lawyer, and has had a few court appearances already.
What makes the story big news is that the kid's mom purports to
believe that her son is entirely innocent and that the Government took
him away under the Patriot Act in violation of all of his
constitutional rights. A local TV station and a radio show apparently
didn't check on whether the claims had any validity -- or even whether
the law was as the mom described -- and they ran the story. The
written version of the TV report is [1]here, and the video version --
which is really the best part, I think -- is [2]here. The story then
took off across the net.
I thought about poking holes in this story just for old times'
sake, but Kevin Poulsen of Wired News got there first. He has two
great posts on this: [3]Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading �Patriot
Act� Arrest Claim. He then follows up with a bit more about the
evidence of what the teenager did -- and what the mother knew -- in
this post: [4]Teenage Bomb Threat Suspect Was Internet Prank-Call
Star. DOJ's press release in response to the misleading coverage is
[5]here. There are a lot of gems in Poulsen's coverage -- very much
worth reading.
Finally, I'll add a caveat that shouldn't be necessary but probably
is. Pointing out that almost all the stories of alleged "Patriot Act
abuses" have nothing to do with the Patriot Act at all (and usually
are not actually "abuses") does not mean that I do not think there are
civil liberties abuses in America; that such abuses should not be
taken seriously; or that the Patriot Act was perfect in every way. The
point is about incredibly bad media coverage, and how easily some
stories are told and retold even if the facts don't back them up --
even today, almost 8 years after the Patriot Act was passed.
References
1. http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5049867/
2. http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/5050332/
3.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/bloggers-tv-go-nuts-over-misleading-patriot-act-claim/
4.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/teenage-bomb-threat-suspect-was-an-internet-prank-phone-call-star/
5.
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2009/05/tyrone_press_release.pdf
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
