This anti Craigslist crusade is just ridiculous. The most impressive thing to me is how some startups that a knowingly violating TOS and intentionally abusing another site are able to gain that much traction for their "cause". Impressive PR/Buzz work!
The press that you see is the result of users being disappointed at the current-state-of-affairs. They don't see it as being helpful for the long term innovation, or short term utility. Some of these users happen to be journalists. Other journalists are reporting it because how this is ruled will be precedence for future cases. I would say that's news.
If you've ever met Eric (Padmapper is a one-man shop), you'll quickly get the sense that he isn't a slick-talkin' kind of guy. I can tell you that it is journalists that approached Eric, not the other way around.
It's not like the press (ie paper newspapers like the NYT) is a neutral party in this - craigslist has pretty much destroyed one of their largest traditional sources of revenue (classifieds).
Whether press is a neutral party or not is a separate issue of the assumption that it's PR work on Padmapper's part. The press may be having a field day, but it's not Eric's doing.
Writing something and calling it a TOS does not automatically make "violating" it illegal. Say, you can make yourself a t-shirt saying "Photographing me is prohibited", yet people still have a right to take pictures of you in public places. Regardless of what your t-shirt says. In offline world people have a legal right to use your data (your own likeness in this example) even if you object, and there are very good reasons why they have this right. I don't see why it should be any different online.
PM is not abusing CL. PM is publishing facts about what is being posted to CL. This should qualify as protected speech and fair use. If the current law does not say so it is wrong and should be fixed.
