That's a jaded and misguided view of the world. Very few reporters will accept articles written by others, and they predominantly work for trade rags, not the New York Times.
Please tell me you read that article and didn't find it odd how extremely one-sided and positive it was.
Also, it happens all the time. And with a publishing machine as big as the NYT, it's bound to happen there as well. Remember Jayson Blair? Different symptom, same cause.
Oh, sure, maybe they don't just accept articles written by others. But they will base things heavily off press releases. That's what press releases are there for. If reporters didn't bite, nobody in the big leagues would bother with them.
