DEREK LOWE IS SUSPICIOUS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ COVERAGE LATELY. Well, yeah. But his suspicions are a bit narrower than most:

Readers may have noticed that I’ve referred to several articles recently that have appeared in the New York Times. They usually do a reasonable job of covering the drug industry – not great, not awful. (I think that the Wall Street Journal pays more attention, and gets more details right.) But I’m starting to wonder if something is up.

The Times has a well-documented tendency for what the current editors call “flood the zone” coverage. Well, the last few weeks have seen a run of stories on the pharmaceutical business. They’ve been long, prominently placed, and rather unfriendly.

He’s got a lot of details. Lowe seems to wonder if the Times isn’t trying to set up an election-year issue. It’s bad news — but not surprising — that the Newspaper of Record inspires such suspicions so routinely now.