A Times article about how black voters are reacting to the political candidacies of New York Democrats Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer begins, "Seated on a dais, before a crowd of men and women still picking at their breakfast of fried chicken, sausage, eggs and grits, Eliot Spitzer smiled."
It looks like political correctness at the Times has not yet penetrated to the point where reporters and editors would pause before beginning a news article about the voting behavior of African Americans with an anecdote that reinforces a stereotype about fried chicken. If black voters in New York actually are eating fried chicken for breakfast, I'm not saying the Times should ignore it. But it's the sort of thing that may well make a lot of readers wince, especially because it's not a detail that's necessarily relevant to the substance of the article, at least not so relevant that it merits being placed in the first sentence.