To badly quote the Bard, they doth protest too much, methinks.
And like all media who took the PJIF dough and try to defend it, they miss the point: As soon as they took the money, from the Government, in return for agreeing to a prescribed editorial position, particularly on constitutional issues like Te Tiriti, they compromised their integrity and therefore their public reputations.
The public knows a Faustian pact when they see one and polls repeatedly show the majority of them think taking PJIF ping has compromised those that took it.