Rep. Peter King's call for an investigation into Newscorp following revelations that media organizations owned by Rupert Murdoch allegedly tried to hack the phones of 9/11 victims is probably a smaller deal than it seems:
King said in the letter, addressed to FBI Director Robert Mueller, that the journalists should face felony charges if the allegations are proven true.
“It is revolting to imagine that members of the media would seek to compromise the integrity of a public official for financial gain in the pursuit of yellow journalism,” wrote King, who is also chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
This is regional politics over party politics, something King--despite his recently acquired reputation as the GOP's foremost Muslim-baiter--has always excelled at. When Republicans who don't represent districts with lots of police and firemen who remember 9/11 vividly or have friends who do, that'll be a bigger sign that Murdoch's troubles across the pond have really migrated over here. Anyway you can tell he likes Murdoch, since unlike CAIR he's willing to wait for them to be indicted before he decides they're guilty of something.
Orin Kerr seems to think that there might be a decent basis for a criminal case here. Now that there are rumblings that the FBI actually intends to investigate, I suspect most of the rest of the GOP will close ranks around Murdoch pretty fast.
