This is not a NYT article, it is an opinion piece written by a third-party author. The NYT editors often don't apply very strict journalistic standards to opinion pieces. This is an (in my opinion somewhat misguided) attempt to be "neutral".
Really? So it's not an article written for the New York Times despite being an article posted on the website of the New York Times? Are opinion pieces, which indeed do get vetted too, somehow categorized as things that randomly form into existence within their own rules of causation, as if they were like sinkholes or lightning strikes?
Also, to clarify better, I guess, I don't disagree with the plausibility of the arguments in this particular piece. My main point was about the NY Times in general and its past actions.
