[Ads-l] "Fair game" reversed?

[Joel Berson]

An article in today's Boston Globe on the banned-book list of the Texas prison system ends:

'The agency also bans, perhaps most ironically, "It Can’t Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis, a novel that describes the fictional election of a fascist president in the United States who imposes totalitarian rule on the country.  "Mein Kampf," on the other hand — which laid the groundwork for an actual fascist takeover in a democratic country — is fair game.'

Isn't this a misuse -- reversal -- of the metaphor?  "Fair game" here would be the books that are targeted, tried, condemned, and banned -- e.g., "It Can’t Happen Here - rather than those that are admited -- e.g., "Mein Kampf"?

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org