There's a hundred newspapers nicknamed "the Times" - there's only one actually named "the Times." They're being provincial?

Being picky about the Times is deep and irritating pedantry, but "the real [X] is the US [X]" is a very well-worn and deeply annoying internet dynamic and the last few years particularly have made reflexive US cultural hegemony really wearing to those of us who live in the benighted and possibly imaginary "rest of the world."