My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror (2018)
The major takeaway is that one can't count on the NYT to challenge powerful interests.  This makes the NYT a powerful <i>conservative</i> force in US culture.<p>It follows that most of the articles that appear opposed to powerful interests are a) inconsequential, or b) used as a distraction, helping to create the impression that the paper is anything <i>but</i> a powerful conservative force.<p>It's no accident that the paper ran the Judith Miller work selling the Iraq war, or that it was an early participant in the smear campaign against Assange, or that it is a thought leader on the threat posed by China.  Sure there are stories about CSAs and the homeless, but ultimately it's a big budget right wing PR operation, intent on <i>preserving</i> the status quo.<p>For even more obvious evidence, just look at the people whose weddings are covered in the paper's nuptials section -- predominantly children of powerful elites who the paper wishes to flatter with its coverage.<p>If one were to ask "what kind of coverage might we expect from a paper controlled by a billionaire industrialist?", we might actually predict a right-wing perspective.  But due to the Times' history as a progressive paper (most notably the writings of Frederick Law Olmsted  which fueled the abolitionist movement), the paper is uncritically viewed by many in the present day as a voice that opposes the right wing, authoritarian social goals held by powerful elites.