Self Defense?

If the administration was spying on AP reporters in reaction to a leak that outed an actual source we had inside al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, this is at worst a misdemeanor-level scandal if the snooping went beyond the scope of the problem or if the administration failed to get proper authorization for the snooping.

This certainly sounds investigation-worthy after all, if it accurately reflects the problem the adminsitration faced:

“Penetrating AQAP is incredibly difficult,” Schroeder continued. “This double agent provided a rare opportunity to gain critical, life-saving information. Whoever disclosed the information obtained by the AP had not only put the agent's life and his family's life in danger. He also killed a golden opportunity to save untold more lives that now remain at risk due to al-Ashiri remaining at large.”

But even if this is not a scandal at all, the way the press went after the non-scandal of Affaire de Plame just in case, I'm sure the press will push just as hard to find a scandal here, right?