I can think of nothing that would serve the New York Times better than having their official White House and Congressional access cut.
The NYT has proven itself a tired old Gray Lady indeed. Dutifully repeating what it is told to repeat in White House briefings, private chats with administration officials, and congress critters; it fills itself with prose that utterly fails to provide any useful information. Between absurd anonymity grants to sources, to covering up executive malfeasance, or simply pushing the GOP line out into the public arena, absolutely nothing of journalistic merit has come out of any private or public White House or Congressional meetings with reporters in the past few years.
Just think of how that would change if the NYT lost its access to these liars.
Lets temporarily ignore the potential revenge/eye-opening revelation factor. What would they fill their pages up with? How would they maintain a customer base?
They'd have little choice but to revert to journalism. Can you imagine a NYT with several major scoops about government and corporate shenanigans every day? Investigative reporting that involved something more than stopping by Rove's or Snow's office for the official spin?
The NYT is capable of these things. Once or twice a month they prove it. Then they let the spin weaken their stories into "he said/she said".
What happens when they can't get access to what "he said"? Little choice but to follow the money, talk to outsiders and other investigators, read actual court documents.
It would be wonderful.
And then you get into the revenge factor. Oh yes, a lot of "reporters" would suddenly find their muse:
"Well, I was going to talk to Bob Ney to see what he says about his potential indictment.... but maybe I'll just spend the day tracking down some of the people in the Abraham files and see what they know. Oh yes, Bob Ney, I bet they know plenty about you..."
So, help the tired old Gray Lady out. Kick that crutch right out from under her. With love. Because there is nothing that would be a bigger positive for journalism in this country than the government trying to cut off its access.