[danShumway]

Yep, I mention that - of the reporters/organizations that need to be called out on this, the NYT is low on my list.

In general though, I disagree that reporters lacking control over the platforms they use means that they're immune from this type of criticism. News organizations are a part of this conversation whether they like it or not, and there are no resolutions (legal or technical) that won't affect news sites. It's irresponsible for a reporter to ignore that.

When people call out the hypocrisy in articles like this, they're not blaming the reporter for their employer's data policies, they're blaming them for ignoring that those data policies exist.

It doesn't mean the reporter's points aren't valid, it does mean there's a dimension of the story they're ignoring, either through ignorance or through choice.