Because the NYT is a quality newspaper that still does a lot of original journalism and does fact checking. They aren't perfect, but they are much better than most.

The NYT enjoys a significant brand aura which blinds many to the significant editorial and journalistic misconduct commited by the organization.

> They aren't perfect, but they are much better than most.

Here's a link to the Twitter account of one of the researchers featured in the article [1]. There are a bunch of tweets near the top of that with links to articles about the research that will get you most of what was covered in the Times article.

I love this clip [2].

[1] https://twitter.com/Astro_Jessica

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLLGv5CfUo

Just hit the stop button on your browser right after you browse to the article, the payload activates asynchronously so if you stop the page from fully loading, it won't come up.

I think it's because on here it's either expected you are paying for it or know how to get around the paywall. Most of the times it's a case of simply disabling JavaScript.