Toward the end of a Times article that appears under the headline "Oil's Financial Ties to Texas Legislators" comes this paragraph:
Oil and gas accounted for more than 8 percent of the state's gross domestic product in 2011, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, so it is not surprising that many lawmakers are in the industry. It is also nothing new. Many former governors, including George W. Bush, have been oilmen.
If something is both "not surprising" and "nothing new," one might reasonably wonder why it merits a Times news article at all. The article itself does not answer that potential objection, but one possibile answer is that, by ordinary Times news standards, the article would not merit publication at all. But because the article is supplied not by Times staff but rather by the Texas Tribune, a non-profit left-leaning news organization that has a deal to supply content to the Times (unlike any right-leaning non-profit news organizations of which I am aware), it makes it into the paper.
Maybe next time the Times can do its customers a favor and if an article is both "not surprising" and "nothing new," label it as such at the top of the article rather than at the bottom. That way the customers can use their valuable time reading something else instead.