Do the tapes persist forever? I'd assume they only keep it for a couple of days at most. For the stated reason, incident response, you may not even need recordings at all, just a real-time view.

I also assume the NYT doesn't meet with sources in their offices (in full sight of everyone from the summer intern to the person restocking the fridge, all of whom you could try to bribe), and instead meets in a crowded public location like a cafe.

The article mentioned that the video is kept locally and not stored anywhere in the cloud, so if you want to hack it you're going to need physical access to the building. And if you have that then NYT has a whole lot of other problems it should be dealing with before worrying about the cameras.

(besides, I very much doubt many people leak to the NYT by walking into the office and announcing their presence. They do it online or send things in by mail in the stories I've read)

The point is the government can force the NY Times to hand it over. And they will. First amendment protection for sources applies to the journalists but not so much third party data.

I'm still not sure exactly what they'd be handing over that would be of note. Confidential sources surely wouldn't meet with journalists in the office, it would be a crazy risk to have them walk through the front door and keep them in view of the entire newsroom.

The cloud is just someone elses computer. Someone elses computer network is not the only network that can be hacked.

Perhaps the cameras and DVRs are on a physically isolated, non-internet connected network ... but I certainly wouldn't bet my life on it even if they told me they were.

> NYT by walking into the office and announcing their presence.

No, but reporters presumably look at work on their notes in places visible to the cameras.

  kept locally and not stored anywhere in the cloud

... unless they put their backups in the cloud and absent-mindedly include everything

Sure, but what if they... don't do that?