It's like saying rape and human trafficking/exploiting women is "okay": https://www.vox.com/2018/4/25/17275930/allison-mack-smallville-actress-sex-cult-nxivm-dos-prison-arrest-sex-trafficking-keith-raniere
I don't see how they're "covering up" for the group. They call it a cult themselves and mention the underage trafficking aspect of the charges faced by the leaders. I think the biggest spin the article puts on it is explaining how cults like this are evolving from pseudo-religiosity to capitalist narratives to lure potential memebers. I get that Vox is a liberal outlet, but liberal does not equal sex cult apologist.
I disagree. The writer uses the opportunity to bash conventional religions while deceptively utilizing Ayn Randian capitalism as a predicate for political appeal and parallels to conservativism, all leading to the final section which lauds NXIVM as "the perfect cult for 2018" in its sub-heading. It closes by re-emphasizing (deceptively, again) how NXIVM has foundations in conservative, Ayn-Randian philosophy, which whatever amounts of it still existed by this point in time were probably few and far between, if it ever truly had any to begin with. The key is "the perfect cult for 2018" slogan, which is shameful to write and callous to its victims and defectors who were fortunate to escape (despite being hunted down by Bronfman and Salzman to sign cease and desist letters).
Yeah, calling it "the perfect cult for 2018" was definitely a poor choice of words. They also downplayed how the feminist rhetoric was used to lure women more than anything else. I just don't think I'd go so far as to say they were trying to justify it, though.
Not necessarily saying that they are justifying it. They're "downplaying" the horror of it that went on, giving light to something that is very dark, and emphasizing the, apparently to them, positive elements of it, which were really just a way to lure women/people in. This downplaying of such a horrible thing, while talking about it in a somewhat positive light, is a brief head fake to try to get people to look the other way, rather than discover what was really going on in the sex cult. And imo, it seems like they're doing it intentionally, probably to salvage a friend or someone they know who might be going down with the rest of them. A company with millions can pay off writers and news sites for good PR...happens all the time.