While some leftist bloggers are positively delighted that the FBI has opened an investigation into NewsCorp regarding possible hacking of 9/11 victims' voicemail accounts -- dreaming of an existential threat to Fox News -- Time's Massimo Calabresi is perplexed as to what could justify the investigation other than political pressure (emphasis mine):
What are they evaluating, exactly? As I pointed out Wednesday, the allegations about the 9/11 hacking are almost laughably thin: single-sourced second-hand hearsay published by a British tabloid that specializes in colorful soccer stories. None of the more respected news outlets that have repeated the allegation have added to the Mirror’s “reporting” a single supporting fact.
This is either because the facts don’t exist, or because the NewsCorp scandal has actually brought the quality of journalism down to the News Of The World‘s standards rather than up from it. See for example The Guardian‘s correction of its allegation (quoted at length by me here) that the Sun (another NewsCorp tabloid) had obtained the medical records of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s son.
[...]
Justice Department officials know the allegations are thin and feel that no one should jump to conclusions, but given the calls from Republican and Democratic lawmakers and the sensitivity surrounding 9/11 victims, they have to look into the matter.
It's politics that accounts for the probe being initiated, not rational detective work.
And it's politics that has and will account for liberal Foxophobes cynically using the development to openly fantasize about a media environment devoid of Fox News.
