This really shows how inadequate the right/left division is. The NYT is an establishment newspaper - they have a few “liberal” positions like tending to support gay rights or at least some access to abortion, although they’ve published plenty of op-eds from people who don’t - but those are more outliers than a trend. Get them started on classic leftie issues like worker or renter rights, taxing rich people, etc. and they’re about as left as you’d expect the average Yale legacy admission to be. The left/right divide really isn’t the best lens for this.

I put a lot of blame on unpaid internship culture: the national media tends to skew towards people from affluent families because that’s who can afford the early career steps in NYC or DC at way below cost of living.