A 51 year old, Philadelphia news anchor plead guilty for hacking into her personal email address and leaking her secrets that led to her termination. Larry Mendte said he felt threatened by the young woman and her rising fame at the station. Her salary was higher, she was younger, and he was afraid of being forced out. He bagan hacking into her private email account and leaking stories to the tabloids about her personal life. The woman, Alycia Lane, had emailed a married friend a picture of herself in a bikini and had also gotten into a bar fight among other things. Lane is suing for invasion of privacy and wrongful termination. Reading someone else's emails is a federal offense. The tabloids cannot be held responsible for publishing this information that was intrusive and gathered illegally as statement in the textbook (Chapter 7, pg. 268-9) since the news station played no part in the interception of the information. This has been the ruling in the past but who knows, maybe if we see more of these cases the guidlines will change.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=161054&catid=28
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I find it interesting that in cases like this the media is not held liable for publishing information like this. I am actually writing my paper on this subject. Because in other areas such as libel and false advertising the media can be held liable for disseminating the false or libelous information. I am making the argument that the media should not be held liable as is the case in this story.
According to Fox News:
PHILADELPHIA — A popular TV newsman has been sentenced to three years of probation for obsessively hacking into his co-anchor's e-mail and leaking gossip about her to the press.
A federal judge ruled Monday that 51-year-old Larry Mendte must serve six months of home confinement during his probation. Mendte also must perform 250 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine.
Mendte had admitted hacking into Alycia Lane's e-mail hundreds of times.
I'm pretty sure his career is over too, I guess he learned his lesson
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