Think about this quote by New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson

[frazzled]

1. Well, I've thought about it

And it comports with what I had been thinking about the Times's robust editorial stance regarding clemency for Snowden. Of course they want that, because they need the hackers to be their excuse to print the things they themselves would never report (and have never reported, because of a kind of journalistic "ethics" they've adopted regarding classified material). They can keep their noses clean while releasing documents obtained by others. It's a triple win: they get to end-run around their own rules about revealing classified material, sell lots of papers, and not even have to pay reporters!