You mean the photogs? It was NYC. But they did it in virtually all the states. Long standing tradition. Now they do it to celebs, though in a milder form.
Did you ever read Ben Hecht's writings on his journalism experience? Gross and kneeslapping funny at once, particularly the story of him having to steal a photo from the mantlepiece.
Regarding the 'Mr' thing I note the Irish equivalent of the NYT, the Irish Times, does the same thing. They get themselves into terrible twists about it though, someone told them that Arabs have their family names first so after much thought they came up with 'Mr Saddam' which was actually how he was referred to in editorials. I read about 'Mr Zedong' alot before I realised they were talking about Chairman Mao.
Actually I shouldn't be too hard on the Irish Times they've recently hired Mark Steyn to contribute, boy he really ruins alot of their readers' breakfasts.