Notwithstanding the Times’s headline, what Mr. Romney actually said was “As to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why I’m afraid I’ve got to say sorry for it.”
As for Mr. Romney’s Mormonism, not only does the Times feel no inhibitions about delving into the subject, it in fact ran a lengthy front page story headlined “Romney’s Faith, Silent but Deep.”
In the old days the Times at least made an effort to conceal its partisanship behind a façade of bland headlines and gray prose. The paper no longer even bothers trying.