I agree with that statement. What's the point in embarrassing that regime. Some IT guys might get in pretty serious trouble now. Good that you found out though, impressive work.
I went through this process last month, and I was shocked to the bottom. Absolutely unprofessional. Thank you for spreading the word. I didn't even think of contacting NYT and complaining, because I knew from this experience that all I could ever reach would have been those awful robots. Thanks for sharing this. NYT, let's please fix that and move on.