There's a difference between US and UK law that's interesting. In the UK, article 8 of the human rights act states that "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." A strict interpretation of this is that a company that monitors emails and intercepts an email between a husband and wife on a work email account violates article 8 [1].

In the US, I believe the government employees have more privacy rights with regard to email and communication than private employees, since private employers are not subject to the same constitutional restrictions - instead they're bound by contract law.

I do agree with you, however. Instead of the front page of the New York Times, however, my personal test is whether I'd be ok with it being projected in a congressional hearing, which actually happened to someone I know. It amounts to the same thing, however.

[1] It's mentioned in an appendix to "Unauthorised Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams," which is an interesting read. There's a particularly good story about an RSA SecurID key fob and a webcam...