Having had a very up-close view of some stories NYT covered, I'd say they are doing horse-trading with the government in selected cases, where they pull certain

Having had a very up-close view of some stories NYT covered, I'd say they are doing horse-trading with the government in selected cases, where they pull certain punches in exchange for access. This is the kind of thing I would expect from them, but not from a player like firstlook.org / The Intercept, for example. Sure they are a special case because they have some deep pocket backers, but that's at least one example of better.