Love your passion social justice. I share it, and I can understand how a cursory understanding of mTurk may feel exploitative.
That said, it's clear neither the NYT nor the Daily Beast understand MTurk users - and because of that, they mistake a hobby for a job.
For many people in the US, MTurk isn't about making money, it's about doing something while you're bored. It's not a replacement for a job, it's a replacement for Farmville.
"Ever wonder what our labor market would look like without minimum wages or labor law protections?"
If Turkers were paid with a virtual currency, there would be no comparison to minimum wages - but because they're paid with cash, the puzzles/work exists in a weird world between work and play.
Also worth mentioning, I intentionally price my HITs low so as to target turkers who aren't looking to supplement their income. It only takes 5 minutes of trying to find one person's email address to realize $.03 isn't worth it - if your goal is to make money.
I may be still missing the boat, but if Turkers really are doing this as a hobby - is it still exploitative?
Good question. Overall quality was high (you're able to see the results as they come in and if they look funky, you can reject them and you won't have to pay).
Fwiw, I've used press release services like this in the past, and haven't gotten coverage like this. No doubt a targeted approach per author would be more effective than mass email, but from my experience, this certainly more effective than a press release.