What Scares You More, the NSA or "Law and Order"?

Rich Galen sums up the most recent overblown attack on the NSA quite well:

Today's projectile-sweat-inducing story came from USA Today with the headline: "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls" over a lede written by reporter Leslie Cauley: "The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans..."

Of course it takes until the middle of the second paragraph to explain that everything above it was misleading: "This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations."

The media fear-mongers may be hoping (for once) that Americans aren't watching tv. As Mr. Galen puts it:

WIRETAPP… Wait. What? Does not involve listening to or recording? What's the big deal?

Don't these people watch Law & Order: SVU reruns? They solve EVERY case by getting a listing of the perp's cell phone calls from the phone company, find out he's been calling the Catholic girl's school five times a day for the previous three weeks, they arrest him; show over - roll the credits.

That was pretty much my reaction.

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