Reporters learned today that their phone conversations with Scott Peterson, accused of killing his pregnant wife Laci Peterson, were tapped between January 10 and Feb. 4. They don't like it. We empathize with them but also welcome their being exposed to the unsettling, violative feeling, that comes with having a private conversation taped via Big Brother.

The tap was on Scott Peterson's phone, so anyone who had a conversation using that telephone line for that period was taped.

The Prosecutor said they were using the wiretap as an investigatory tool, hoping for a confession. We doubt they got one. They did intercept calls between Scott and his lawyer, which they said they "minimized" (stopped recording and listening) once they knew it was a legal call. That should have been right away--as soon as they heard, "Scott, this is Kirk). Or as soon as the call was connected to Kirk McAllister, his then lawyer, if Scott initiated the call. Time will tell if they really minimized the calls the way they were supposed to.

One point: wiretapping in an extremely intrusive measure. Wiretap orders are not supposed to be granted unless the proseuctors satisfy a neutral judge that other investigative techniques have been tried and failed or are unlikely to succeed. Wiretaps are used frequently in drug cases because they allow police to identify buyers and sources of the suspected drug dealer target. We will watch closely to see what probable cause the police had to bug Scott's phone, why they believed incriminating evidence would be revealed in his conversations on that phone line, and why good old fashioned physical surveillance combined with their 8 search warrants weren't enough. This sounds like a fishing expedition to us.

We also doubt Scott confessed on the phone--if he had, we suspect we would have seen an arrest a lot sooner.