Why did major media outlets like the NY Times and Washington Post (the government-approved outlet for classified information) suddenly become avid leak hunters?

Among those vying for starring roles were the online sleuthing group Bellingcat, which on 9 April publicly identified the private Discord server where Teixeira is said to have posted classified documents; and the New York Times, which matched images of the Teixeira family kitchen where the top secret papers were supposedly photographed to the 21-year-old defendant’s social media profile.(Guardian)

The Hunt for OG
The New York Times is proud of its long history of publishing classified information leaks, and of protecting leakers.

So why would the New York Times anxiously rush to identify the latest leaker so the Feds could drag him from his fetid lair? (in his mom's basement.  So Gen Z...)

Matt Taibbi, unlike me, is a real journalist and also unlike me is a supporter of leaking classified information, and unlike the much of the NY Times, Washington Post government press, always and consistently supported leakers and protected them. He had this to say:

The Press is Now Also the Police
As fallout from the Discord leak continues, the undisguised partnerships of media, intelligence, and law enforcement come into more painful relief.

Taibbi also wrote this:

Reading what’s out there, it’s not easy to parse what’s a legitimate intelligence concern in reaction to these leaks and what’s mere embarrassment at having been caught lying, to the public, to would-be U.S. allies the documents show we’ve been spying on, etc.

No Checks, No Balances
We detected it years ago, that the checks and balances set up by the founders were collapsing, with Big Biz, every other Biz, and various factions and branches of Big Gov all in bed together, with the taxpayer footing the bill for the orgy. We also knew the Infotainment Media Complex had joined "Them" (as opposed to us).  Why not? They all come from the same elite class.

Taibbi continues...

The Leaker tale will also surely be framed as reason to pass the RESTRICT Act, the wet dream of creepazoid Virginia Senator Mark Warner, which would give government wide latitude to crack down on “communication technology” creating “undue or unacceptable risk” to national security.

We The People are the "Undue or Unacceptable Risk"

The Infotainment Media Complex has become a treacherous and brazen state toady.

What say you, comrade?