Are you British by any chance? The UK press really is different from the US, in that you guys have newspapers with a variety of slants, from left to right, which most everyone is aware of. But in the US, the common perception is that there is a “neutral” mainstream press (NYT, WaPo, etc.). However, these papers would never ever publish anything approaching admiration for a Republican campaign.
Yes I am a Brit. From my UK perspective NYT feels distinctly Democrat leaning rather than neutral with the odd surprise opinion piece. I don't think I've ever felt them independent or neutral. WaPo somewhere between Democrat and Republican - I've never quite been sure if that's them simply unsure which horse they want to ride. Though I admit I read rather less from WaPo, and am not sure of the US Republican equivalent of The NYT, equivalent to the UK Torygraph (though they're not really that since their last change of ownership).
What I do notice distinctly, with both those and probably all US media to some extent is the degree they come onside around "national issues" and military action, often becoming distinctly non-neutral, even when it against their perceived political alignment. A tendency that is far less pronounced in the UK papers - though that is increasing.
UK media is often quite happy to lay the boot into the sitting government, even if it is "their own". Neutrality usually gets bought and made partisan (and crap) - Murdoch and Times, Lebedev and Independent. FT is probably the closest we have left, and their buyer haven't yet ruined it.
