The NYT would sit on this story until after the election if it made the Bush administration look good. Or the story would be on page A36.
In fairness (gag, choke) to the Slimes, they had the NSA spying story in October 2004, and buried in until 2005 instead of publishing right before the election. End of fairness to them. They held it not to help Bush, but to give the author time to write a book to bundle along with the article. It was financial, not moral, but they did hold that story and they could have done it before the election. They also might have figured it would have given the President more votes.