Eugene Volokh, over at the Volokh Conspiracy gives an excellent example of the "Everything Is The Patriot Act's Fault media line," which, as he describes it, works like this:

If the government is doing something bad related to terrorism, throw in an obligatory criticism of the Patriot Act, which would suggest to readers that the problem here is a Patriot Act problem, rather than an inevitable effect of traditional law enforcement rules and practices (or even of heightened law enforcement activity post-9/11 that is far outside the Patriot Act problems). And do that even if in fact the search is not at all linked to the actual Patriot Act as it was enacted, rather than the Patriot Act of myth.

I think he's exactly right about this approach, and I'd like to suggest two reasons the Line is so popular.

First, it makes any unsuccessful law enforcement action a more sensational story. If an unsuccessful search by the FBI is the result of standard, usual law enforcement practice, most folks will give it the benefit of the doubt. The system worked for a long time, so they'll assume it's ok now. But, if the search was possible only because of a law that changed the balance between saftey and civil liberties, the issue of whether the law went too far is front and center. That's a big story. That's sensational. That sell papers and gets your story on the front page.

The other reason this Line is so popular, I fear, is that it places the blame for any civil rights abuses at the feet of the Bush administration. If the abuse results from traditional law enforcement rules, or even hightened enforcement activity, the blame question is a complex one. But, if the abuse results from the Patriot Act, and Bush passed it, it must be his fault.

I don't approve of either reason, but I hope (in vain, I'd guess) that the first reason is more common than the second.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 5:36 PM