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That seems like a mistake on their part, because usually the kind of people who put messages on vehicles and drive around or park them outside the place they have a beef with are, not to put too fine a point on it, loo-lahs. There was a guy fighting with the cops in my town (he probably still is) who did exactly this - closely written placards fastened onto a car parked outside the police station. It didn't convince anyone of his sanity, much less that he was in the right in this argument.
What's fascinating in this is that the NYT is even being anything like even-handed on the issue; the newsroom revolt and crackdown does seem to have shifted the power balance back from the younger, activist journalists to the older editorial staff.
My theory is that they figured out this issue is a dead end, or at least came to believe there's a real chance it might blow up in the progressive's collective faces, so they're covering their asses to preserve credibility.
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