Art imitating life: This did actually happen!
In the summer of 1942, the Chicago Tribune (believe it was the Trib), in reporting the victory of Midway actually printed a blurb about the United States having broken Japanese radio codes, and credited this event as the reason for American success.
As far as I know, nothing was done to the Trib or it's people by the FDR administration.
Still doesn't excuse the Times, though.
You are correct.Nothing was done to the Tribune or Colonel McCormick,its right wing owner. FDR wanted a treason indictment, but his AG and Marshall persuaded FDR that such an indictment would prove the story to the Japs. Letting it go, would allow the story to disappear as another wartime myth. In any event there is no evidence that Japan had even been aware of the story.
A more recent example of intelligence that could have been revealed was the Navy's successful tapping of the underwater cables of the Soviet's Northern and Pacific bases, Murmansk and Vladivostok. These missions involved entering Soviet waters and placing recordind devices on the cables and retrieving them at a later date. Such invasion of sovereign territory was in violation of international law. Would the Times of the late 60s thru the 80s have been so quick to reveal these missions?