Obama Bans Fishing? Not So Fast

Earlier this month, a rumor began to take hold that President Obama wants to ban fishing.

The claim was spurred by a column from Robert Montgomery of ESPN Outdoors that appeared on ESPN.com. It suggested that the Obama administration has finished the process of taking public input "for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters."

(The column was later updated to add a qualifier that the strategy would only ban fishing in "some of" those locations.)

As the sports blog Deadspin and the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters documented, the claim led to a flurry of headlines in the conservative media. One read, "Obama's Latest Assault on Freedom - New Regulations Will Ban Sport Fishing," while another said, "Obama: The Will Of The People Be Damned - I'LL Decide Who Can Go Fishing."

The claim was featured on The Drudge Report and Fox Nation Web sites as well as Michelle Malkin's popular conservative blog. It was also pushed by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and Fox News' Glenn Beck.

Yet the ESPN report was overheated -- at best. In response to the rumors, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made clear that there are no plans to stop Americans from fishing.

What had happened is that a task force had released interim reports discussing goals for managing America's waterways. The task force's efforts could eventually lead to guidelines focused primarily on commercial (not recreational) fishing policy. There could be recommendations for managing recreational fishing, but there has been no talk of a ban.

The interim reports "do not establish any restrictions on recreational fishing or on public access," said a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality quoted in a Greenwire/New York Times story on the rumors.

But the ESPN report nonetheless spread widely in conservative media circles, leading one fishing columnist to dub it "the worst example of outdoor sports reporting in the history of America."

AP

"As a sportsman who covers fisheries management and politics I do think there are many issues surrounding the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and its eventual recommendations that all fishermen should be aware of and concerned about," wrote Jeffrey Weeks. "But to go from concern to suggesting that President Obama is about to ban fishing in America is the most absurd and irresponsible thing I have ever seen a major news outlet publish.

"There is not even a remote possibility that a standing president of the United States will outlaw fishing in America," he added.

In response to the uproar, ESPNOutdoors.com Executive Editor Steve Bowman posted a note that "we made several errors in the editing and presentation" of the column. He said the piece should have been labeled as opinion, not news, and said that it "was not properly balanced and failed to represent contrary points of view."

A link to that editor's note is now posted at the top of the column with a reference to "concerns" about its content.

One conservative blogger seemed to understand the factors at play in the response to the piece.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that [President Obama] will not, in fact, ban fishing," wrote Hot Air's Allahpundit, "but the meta-narrative is so irresistible -- elitist President Arugula coming to grab the bitter-clingers' rods and reels! -- that it simply must be blogged."

[vex520ak]

Great, so we have his permission do we?! Well, thank the Great Leader for the little things! Doesn't matter if Obama gives us permission to fish for the moon and stars and he starts up a $100.00 bill hatchery every hundred yards of coast. The guy is a marxist, plain as corn in poo; the only place a marxist belongs is in Hell and that after being sent there at the end of a bayonet. The rest of you can debate weather or not being bought off by this Maoist chump with "his" taxpayer money, under the best case scenario, is a good thing or not. People all bent over, grabbing their ankles and talking about how barak wants to help us; I for one am saying he'll be the ruin of us all no matter what he buys our votes with and Damn anyone who supports him and calls themselves an American.

[tsigili]

Nothing Obama might do, will surprise me.

[stormerF2]

There could be recommendations for managing recreational fishing? If they are not thinking of it why would they bring it up? Enviromnetalist are more of threat than the terrorists are to this country. We ban DDT because some nut bag enviromentalist (new Head of the EPA) read some stupid ******* book and ignored the facts. Or we could be saving 100's of 1000's of people each year that die of malaria.

[maxcoffee-2009]

Wow... The book that you are talking about is called Silent Spring and it was written by Rachle Carlson. She did her research for the book so well that not a single scientist disagreed with her. The only people at the time who didnt want DDT banned were the corperations that wanted to keep spearding the dangerous substance around.
Your suggestion that enviromnetalists are a bigger threat than terrorists is absurd. Have enviromnetalists ever flown a plane into a buliding killing thousands of people?

[babooph]

The elephant symbol has to go -chicken little would be more accurate.....

[rockcutr]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
Oh, wait, there is the little boy who cried wolf.
Fear is a great tool if you are making movies or old radio shows like Orson Wells, War of the Worlds. In todays time, hype is king, bad publisity, wether true or not carries weight. Even when the issue seems to be over. A certain amount of slow folks will never read past the catch phrase. There are a lot of children that have been left behind in America the not so beautiful.
Sadly, lots of those folks are in leadership roles. The third grade was the 5 hardest years of their life.

[nolieshere]

Why doesn't the DNC promote silly and outrageous rumors like the RNC does?

BECAUSE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THEM!

[Dgunner]

Any person in this day and age of our self destructing greed to own and play with matieral possesions and buy now pay later way of living would have to dedicated or just plain stupid to want to be president over a bunch greedy and self loathing countrymen and women. We as USA citizens should count our blessing that we have ANYONE who wants to be our president.ALL of you so called patriotic americans who purchase foreign made products are mostly responsible for the state of our economy.Credit card abusers and deadbeat parents are a bigger threat than wal-mart will ever be or the congressional lobbyist that make 500.000 a year to help in the destroying of our country from within.Clean your weapons , hoard you money and stop buying non american made products you chicken sh==t treasonist fake patriots.There has never been a wartime president that wasn't reelected.This could be a chance to change history once again when the time comes for the american people to elect the best lier and smoothest thief in the race.

[ladd09]

I just hope the American people know how to use Google and find out the truth for themselves. Become a truth seeker and learn how to separate truth from lies and let facts set your mind free.

[50BMS13]

Obama wants to ban fishing obviously! Come on, can't you see the picture of him holding up the sign? What more proof do you want???

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money-01]

Worth at least a snicker.

[bigloudbike]

Gee the Republican Gov. of the St. of CT. basicly killed fishing here by raising fishing fees to make it unaffordable for the common person. Probably 100 bucks next year.

[thinking-hurts]

What had happened is that a task force had released interim reports discussing GOALS for managing America's waterways. The task force's efforts could EVENTUALLY LEAD TO GUIDELINES focused PRIMARILY on commercial (not recreational) fishing policy. There could be recommendations for managing recreational fishing, but there has been no talk of a ban.
So the word ban was not in the interim report but please look at the words GOALS,EVENTUALLY LEAD TO GUIDELINES, PRIMARILY