isen.blog

Fishing expedition, indeed! "Poisoning the ocean," would be more apt.

A New York Times editorial last week, about U.S. Government invasions of privacy, is inaptly titled "Fishing in Cyberspace." Elsewhere in the NYT, Bob Herbert writes

"Whatever its stated goals, the N.S.A. seems to be operating the greatest fishing expedition in the history of the world."

Danny Weitzner asks whether Google's recent subpoenas are a "Fishing expedition or a new kind of intrusion."

In fact, a Technorati search for "fishing expedition" yields 2471 hits, and 36 of the first 40 defame fishing, as if it were clumsy groping in an unfamiliar unlit space. We must read to Hit #25 before we get the idea that the metaphor is flawed. The original source observes

Let's clarify the terminology.

Searching the Google records of millions of Americans is like fishing in a pond posted with "No Fishing Permitted" signs, using a stolen pole and tainted bait.

When I go on a fishing expedition, I either know where to go, when to go, and how to do it, or I go with somebody who does. My friend John Christian, who I went to third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade with, spent his adulthood, while I was frittering my time away at CalTech and Bell Labs, in worthy pursuit of the noble striped bass. When he puts the stern of his boat between the boulders in the crashing Cuttyhunk surf and says, "Cast it into the beach and retrive as slowly as you can," he's not groping. I got a twenty pounder on the first cast. He put me onto so many big bass that morning we stopped measuring. Then my elbow gave out and we quit early. The right metaphor for fishing with Johnny is more like, "Probable cause." Maybe even "arrest," or "conviction," or "sentencing." Definitely warranted.

I visited the north shore of the Dominican Republic in the 1970s. I snorkeled among coral reefs bleached and barren. The beach people had discovered that for a few pennies they could buy a gallon of bleach, dump it into the water, and, minutes later, pick up the dead fish that came to the surface. It took them a year or two to understand that this "fishing" technique killed the reef and wrecked the fishing, probably for decades, maybe centuries.

Poisoning the ocean is the right metaphor for today's illegal, unconstitutional, chilling activities.

Technorati Tags: Bushco, Constitution, Fish, Freedom, Google, Press, WoodsHole