Wait, are you suggesting that the NY Times used not to do opinion? When was this? Practically all newspapers (or at least general-audience newspapers; trade newsletters and similar less so) have, for centuries.
The basic narrative (chefs used not, in general, be very important, then they became this weird all-important publicly venerated dictator figure who could get away with not only assaulting employees, but actually writing about doing so in books, now there's a backlash against that) doesn't seem that out-there...
> For decades, the notion of the lone genius in the kitchen has fostered culinary creativity — and restaurants marred by abuse and unfairness. This may be the time for change.
This is the first paragraph - it is clearly making claims and an argument for something.
Most people reading this would view this as an argument with evidence as such which it presents - it is not a criticism of a book.
It's in the Food section [0], and tagged with "Critic's Notebook" anywhere the article is linked. That apparently being one of their blog / opinion lines for food.
It doesn't seem fair to look at modern news conglomerates (which typically combine news and opinion) and complain that the non-news content bismirches the journalism.
That content typically funds the journalism, and is the only reason the latter still exists.
A fair shot would be saying "I do not feel like this article is appropriately declared as opinion." Which, maybe. But I think that's debatable, and the NYT certainly differentiates a helluva lot better than Fox News and MSNBC.
And it's just this attitude that has caused the era of fake news.
> A fair shot would be saying "I do not feel like this article is appropriately declared as opinion." Which, maybe. But I think that's debatable, and the NYT certainly differentiates a helluva lot better than Fox News and MSNBC.
This is exactly the point. Fox News and MSNBC are some of the worst offenders - this does not excuse the NYT from it.
Also I remind people that journalism is not just reporting of facts. If it was all newspapers would be lists of factoids.
"Journalism, the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary"
This is very clearly journalism.