If you're wondering why there is such an enormous pushback against the New York Times over the leaking of the SWIFT program, remember this is the modern republican party. So, where does one start to look to find the origin? Of course, it's politics. Everything is politics with this crew.
Hating on the gays isn't working anymore. Hating on the Hispanics (sorry, fill in your own more PC term there if you're so inclined) certainly backfired. But here is the New York Times, the right's mortal enemy, and they just leaked a story that was pretty much already out in the public domain, as well as the WSJ, but you don't here anything about them, do you?
I myself wouldn't be surprised if the administration leaked this information themselves. It is an election year and for the last few news cycles we have gotten nothing but good old-fashioned red meat for the right wing base. After all, the republican party has failed to give them on immigration, FMA, the flag burning amendment, etc. recently and there has been some wavering in the right's ranks.
In fact, not much has been going right for the right, so it appears to me that the republicans have decided to flip the switch on the anger machine and aim it directly at that great bogeyman, Bill Keller. Guess what, it worked. The right wing blogs have been doing everything except calling for Keller's head on a pike. Now, to keep the momentum going, the republicans in Congress wants to condemn the Times.
This is just another example of how the republicans are willing to trash the first amendment for plain and simple trash politics.