3. The more public power someone has, the less privacy they are entitled to claim
Last night, I was on Chris Hayess show (video below) discussing the Podesta email leak and made this point, and some people reacted as though this were some bizarre, exotic claim rather than what it is: the fundamental principle of journalism as well the basis of numerous laws. Of course its the case that the more power someone has, the less privacy they have, and every media outlet, literally every day, operates on that principle, as do multiple sectors of law.
That there are different standards of privacy for different people based on their power and position is axiomatic. Thats why laws like FOIA requiring disclosure (including of emails) apply only to public officials but not to private citizens: It embraces the proposition that those who wield public power submit to greater transparency than private citizens do. This same principle is why people cheered when the NYT published Trumps tax return even though theyd be horrified if the NYT published the tax return of ordinary citizens because people like Trump who wield or seek great political power sacrifice some degree of privacy.
Media outlets constantly report on the private matters of powerful people or institutions that they would never even consider exposing if it involved non-powerful actors. When Paul Manafort became Trumps campaign chairman, his financial transactions were of much greater public interest than they were when he was just a private citizen. And various realms of law, such as the law of defamation, impose different standards on public figures than on private citizens.
John Podesta is easily one of the most powerful people in the country. Hes a former White House chief of staff, current campaign chairman for the candidate highly likely to be the most powerful official on the planet within less than three months, and almost certain to occupy a top position in the Clinton White House. This does not mean, of course, that he has no privacy: His communications of a purely private or personal nature should not be published or reported.
But its beyond dispute that the public interest in knowing what he is doing and saying regarding public matters is much higher than it is for ordinary citizens. Thats why every media outlet in the country has reported on the content of his emails even though they would not report on the emails of people with no political power: because all media outlets regard the privacy entitlement of powerful, political figures as less than that of ordinary, private actors.