The Rich Drive Differently

The New York Times has an article headlined, "The Rich Drive Differently, a Study Suggests," about a piece of social science research published in 2010. Why this research is newsworthy all of a sudden now, three years after it was published, the Times doesn't explain or say. The Times characterizes the study as "linking bad driving habits with wealth," similar to the headline about "the rich," but the research doesn't have any information about the wealth of the drivers, just about how fancy or new the car they were driving was. Someone who owns a used Toyota outright may be wealthier in terms of assets in a brokerage account than someone who borrowed to buy a new Mercedes or someone who is leasing a new Mercedes. The research fits the Times worldview that the non-Sulzberger rich are somehow evil, so it gets reported without the skepticism or hostility that the Times applies in its approach to other news stories.