They want to make Republicans/Conservatives look bad, That's why
Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner!
I believe you're absolutely correct regarding the NYT motives: They do want to paint all conservatives with the brush of being irrational, anti-sience, anti-intellectual bible-thumping fundamentalists. They are attempting to paint conservatives by this false association as the American version of the Taliban.
IMHO, those who are on the offensive for creationism/ID have not bothered to understand science's procedures, history, philosophy and limited assumptions because simply they do not want to and, thus, are truly anti-intellectual.
For the sake of conservatism, I believe we need to mount a PR campaign of (for example) "Conservative Association for the Advancement of Science."
Yeah, that's right, join the left against the Christians. I love to see atheists join their proper crowd.