I have not seen that problem with Safari Networking (I just checked with Activity Monitor and it is a t 0% CPU). I visit NYTimes many times per day and I don't have this issue. I am using Safari 14.0.2.

Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365