Juan Cole's empty threats

Perhaps the most farcical part of the Hitchens-Cole saga is this exchange of correspondence between Cole and Jacob Weisberg, in which the ole perfesser attached an e-mail from a "friendly attorney" comparing Hitch using his e-mail with The Nation pre-emptively publishing President Ford's memoirs. The lawyer wrote Cole:

Clearly, Hitchens intended to pre-empt you and supersede your eventual publication when he printed material he expects you to eventually publish and changed its meaning to fit his own goals.

Evidently they're teaching mind-reading in law schools now. I don't want to go all Lowell Bergman here, but the profession of journalism is in large part based on journalists getting their hands on stuff that is not intended for their viewing and then writing about it. And even this Supreme Court wouldn't curtail those rights without a major shit-fit from the fourth estate.