It's absolutely commonplace for newspapers to publish op-eds. In fact, I'd be more surprised if any particular newspaper didn't do it. In print, it's usually n

It's absolutely commonplace for newspapers to publish op-eds. In fact, I'd be more surprised if any particular newspaper didn't do it. In print, it's usually not a source of confusion because the op-eds are on their own page or in their own column that has "Opinion" or something in the heading. This is something that the NYT's website should try harder to emulate (or it should provide some other sort of visual differentiation between reporting and opinion contents), but "diluting their brand" is a quite extraordinary claim.