I agree the NYT has really gone off the rails this last year. They're struggling to maintain the emotional excitement of the Trump times. Race and gender are their go to triggers. Nuance and subtlety don't ratchet up the adrenaline. However, we need mainstream news, even the emotional NYT, which I hope returns to real, high quality journalism soon. This incident has been a good example of the erosion of civil discourse. She needed to get her dog on the leash and apologize for not following the rules. He needed to recognize her fear of him and try to ally those fears rather than exacerbate them. The real story is that this breach of good manners didn't happen and exploded into a national incident.