You are right - it sounds like an excuse to protect the guilty.
First, under section 230 of Title 47 of the U.S. Code, websites are not liable as publishers for the content on their sites so long as they are not involved in the creation of the objectionable content.
Second, a newspaper is only liable for content it creates if it published the content with malice, a very high bar to liability.
Third, any lawyers "licking their chops" over anonymous posting on a Newspaper website had better go back to law school or learn to live hungry.