This is a specious and disingenuous argument. As a long-time user of Newzbin2 I was really sad to see it go. However, I would compare them to someone who publishes and charges for an online version of the "map to stars homes" in Hollywood, except it's a "map to unlocked houses".
They aren't precisely condoning theft, but they are knowingly making it easier for thieves to plan jobs, even if their goal is to simply let people know where they can find a welcoming place to crash.
They are listing all the unlocked houses, including ones owned by people who welcome visitors, and some honest people probably use their map and don't steal anything. But we all know that some people are using it to find easy scores.
Are the owners of the robbed houses entitled to recompense from the map makers? I don't know. But let's not pretend we don't know what's happening.
Yes I know, property rights don't correlate directly to digital creations, etc, etc. it's the closest analogy I could draw.