Yes, NYT is victim blaming, plus if you are driving an auto, penalties for killing some is almost non-existent if you are not impaired. At the very least, you should lose your license for a few years.
It's legal, certainly. But where I live at least (NYC) it's as likely as anything to exacerbate dangerous driving as cars try to pass you anyway. I don't mean to sound alarmist but driver entitlement is a helluva drug and police enforcement for traffic offenses is incredibly low. It's the Wild West out there.
Legality doesn't matter if the drivers who think they own the streets don't know the law or aren't willing to abide by it.
This is dependent on where you live, and I would not recommend taking the lane unless you observe local cyclists doing so as well. I've ridden across several states and in some parts of the US the rules of the road are dictated by Newton's laws rather than state and federal ones. You may be within your legal rights to ride in the middle of the lane, but depending where you ride you may have to deal with more than just everyday honking and swearing. Punishment passes, thrown aluminum cans (hopefully empty), brake checks, swerving, etc.
I'm the sort of person who "takes the lane" when necessary but it doesn't work great in practice: Many drivers will aggressively tailgate and I've even been "bonked" by one who thought it was a totally normal and acceptable thing to do.
I even live in an area where cyclists are recommended (by the police) to ride ~3 feet from the curb and we require drivers (by law) to give cyclists ~3 feet of clearance. If cyclists were to follow those rules they'd be taking the full lane almost everywhere. But likely due to a combination of it not being common in practice and motorists being generally impatient it ends up being a dangerous set of guidelines to follow.
In the greater context of this and the NYT article: The answer is probably better bike infrastructure.
Remember "jay-waking"?