This is an op-ed piece, and NYT op-eds have always been godawful. I don't know why we care about it now, or why we're only just now using it to criticize the NYTs journalism (which has more than enough to criticize all on it's own) but that's where this has come from.

Edit: Not entirely relevant to the first point, but I just went and gave it a listen and... The above piece is fucking embarassing. Really. That they've had to change the title three times would seem to indicate they agree. It's the moderator (an absolute dickhead) and some conservative weirdo refusing to answer a very reasonable and simple question with just utter nonsense. Hopefully the justified backlash to this continues, and they eventually clue in and just take it down. Fucking joke.