Change in ownership sometime in the 1970s(?) turned it around from staunchly conservative (when it boastfully called itself "World's Greatest Newspaper" in one corner of page 1 and "An American Newspaper for Americans" in the other corner) to its current leftist rag status.
The left did that to numerous patriotic newspapers (as part of their long-term culture war) and nobody stepped in to stop them. Our failure to fight them is why we’re in the horrific nightmare we find ourselves in today.