Considering that we're talking about professional writers, it seems really unlikely that this argument was made with genuine sincerity rather than simply out of need for a passable defense to give their peers. "That's not even what doxxing means! You're being melodramatic!" sounds a lot better than "Who cares? It's a small blog and we're the NYT".

Especially as I always hard that term in the general, leaking someone’s information.