Could they dodge editorial responsibility this way?
I doubt it. In Drudge’s parlance it may also means simply that the Times is going to put it on the Front Page and whether it is above or below the fold gives the story more importance by NYT standards.
The NYT already had three stories on the front page last week about Bristol’s baby. The NYT has become a gossip tabloid and lost whatever pretense they had about being journalists. They are engaged in the politics of personal destruction as they see their Golden Boy sink below the waves. They are getting desperate.
Drudge now reporting his source came from the “Newsroom.”