> The Post publicizes material obtained through hacking with caution, only after verifying its authenticity and ascertaining that there is news value in bringing such information to light. Sure you do. So let me just check here: Political purity as an employment requirement... Firing people for this is fine, right? What happens when the popular politics change? The "Moral Majority" folks were accused of wanting to be…
I mean, I'm not sure what your point is. This is absolutely a key problem that newspapers have; on the one hand, no-one wants a news environment where newspapers just publish press releases, but on the other hand most people don't want a repeat of the News of the World scandal either. Newspapers have to tread a fine ethical line on just how involuntarily disclosed information can or should be used.
Clearly, an environment where newspapers _never_ reported on leaks or hacks would be a problem; realistically they'd just be press release services at that point. On the other hand, an environment where newspapers uncritically published every leak and hack would _also_ be a problem; this would cause a lot of problems and would, frankly, be such a huge volume of information that it would be useless. They _have_ to editorialise.