The design of the Times actually gives editorial emphasis to the stories that are the most important on the page — in that way it's the opposite of a laundry list site like a blog or Hacker News. You may argue that the grid is sloppy, but it makes you engage on the page for a great deal of time (which advertisers like) — and the quality of the writing and photography makes that exploration worthwhile too. Besides if you don't want to sit back and browse you can get the latest laundry list via rss, twitter or even a mobile app.
Something tells me your point would have been a little more validated if the way you delivered it weren't somehow even more annoying, distracting and ugly from the design you're trying to critique.