The NYT article doesn't really bring anything to the conversation that the original source doesn't, seems having 2 different submissions would split the conversation and kill both threads.
The NYT article has much more background information, explaining why this is newsworthy.
Agreed.
I think they're really separate stories and items. Big news events always generate multiple submissions, I think that's ok and that it's fine to let the HN community decide which should rise to the top