In this case, I think the media’s actually exercising some common sense. Lawyers will tend to force that onto people.
All the profits in the world than can be reaped from this will be worthless if one person successfully manages to sue them in return.
My best guess is that the list will be passed to some particularly nasty Democrat blogger - perhaps John Avirsos or whatever that queer’s name is, so that the media can, in turn, simply report on his allegations.
Releasing the names isn’t about “newspaper sales and ratings”, it’s about destroying the public and political careers of political enemies.
“Take ‘em out” and then figure out how to settle the tab.