To me the way the NYT treated this black reporter, proves that NYT is mostly racist.
And naturally Safire is going to say nice things about his employer, it doesn't change the fact that NYT has major Left slant. Sure, the NYT can hire a couple of blacks and couple conservatives- doesn't change the fact that they mostly white and mostly liberal.
But it doesn't bother me if they are white and liberal, my problem is they live in a bubble. And that's why they are still racist, and why they are wrong about everything- except, of course, they are right about things "in the bubble".

As far as being in the business for a long time, I don't think proves anything, other than if the same regime was actually intact for long period of time (opposed to being taken over and the name retained), that would indicate the reason probably wasn't due the paper being good paper, but rather probably more to do city & regional politics and corruption (lots of it).