> the New York Times has spent most of this year actively trying to dissuade people from voting for the mayoral candidate in New York that had free buses as one of the more widely known parts of his platform
The Times editorial board repeatedly wrote anti-Mamdani opinion pieces. But speaking as a non-NYC New York Times reader I never saw it unless it was sent to me by a New Yorker--it simply wasn't commentary that was highlighted unless you were specifically trying to follow the NYC election. (And to the extent they criticised his candidacy, it wasn't in rejecting free busses.)
I think that's kind of my point. There's a perception of the NYT as leaning pretty strongly to the left, which isn't necessarily false, but it's missing the important context that being based in New York and mostly run by people living in New York, it's arguably a lot less left leaning relative to the city itself. This likely isn't going to be obvious to someone outside of the the city, but I think it's useful information for the wider audience to understand. It's leftward leaning compared to the nation as a whole, but not its local audience, and those dynamics both come into play for its editorial policy.
In the case of this specific story, there's an extremely straightforward potential explanation for why you story might have the bias that the parent comment describes, but for almost the exactly opposite reason that someone might think without that additional context.
The Times editorial board repeatedly wrote anti-Mamdani opinion pieces. But speaking as a non-NYC New York Times reader I never saw it unless it was sent to me by a New Yorker--it simply wasn't commentary that was highlighted unless you were specifically trying to follow the NYC election. (And to the extent they criticised his candidacy, it wasn't in rejecting free busses.)