It's official: Profanity is allowed in the New York Times. From the Times' recap of a voice mail left to Eliot Spitzer's father:

In the message, the caller says, referring to a potential subpoena: "There is not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it. Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth and the fact that your son's a pathological liar will be known to all."

Ah, shit. Is this the first time that "shit" appeared in the New York Times? It wasn't. Back in 2006, another "shit" made it into the Times thanks to a reprinted Reuters article. But this marks the first occasion in which NYT reporters used "shit" within a story.

The always helpful Daniel Radosh also points out that there is even a history of the word "shit" in newspapers.