This is not free speech, these are threats and the NYTimes deserves prosecution.
I remember reading that during the Vietnam war the younger Sulzberger who would go on to run the NY Times was asked a question; “ If you were a reporter in Vietnam standing in a clearing with two roads coming in, one road had an American soldier walking in and the other had a Viet Cong soldier, who would you call out to as a warning?” He answered without hesitating “the Viet Cong”. They hated America then and they haven’t changed.