Sounds as if you are attempting to excuse, in some way, the NYT for releasing the info.
This is no different from a bank robber handing you a bunch of cash, telling you it is stolen and you then spending it.
Yours is a sort of lame attempt at a sort of moral equivalency
not at all, but the only way the NYT got this information was by somebody with an axe to grind leaking it to them. That means we have bigger problems than just nosy reporters.