The New York Times was purchased by Adolph Ochs (1858-1935) in 1896. On August 18, 1896, Ochs wrote:
 
“It will be my earnest aim that The New-York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is parliamentary in good society, and give it as early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved; to make of the columns of The New-York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”
 
“Without fear or favor” became well known and was used in the title of Harrison E. Salisbury’s book, Without Fear or Favor: The New York Times and Its Times (1980). “Without fear or favor” had been cited in print since at least the 1700s and has been frequently used to describe proper application of law.
 
   
Wikipedia: The New York Times
The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. It has won 108 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. Its website, nytimes.com , is America’s most popular newspaper site, receiving more than 30 million unique visitors per month.
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The New York Times was acquired by Adolph Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, in 1896. The following year, he coined the paper’s slogan, “All The News That’s Fit To Print”; this was a jab at competing papers such as Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal which were known for lurid yellow journalism. Under his guidance, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, and reputation.
   
Google Books
Sacred Biography, Or, The History of the Patriarchs
Volume I
By Henry Hunter
New-York, NY: Printed by Thomas Simpson
1807
Pg. 11:
Now the professed purpose of all history is, without fear or favor, without partiality or prejudice, to represent men and things as they really are—that goodness may receive its just tribute of praise, and vice meet its deserved censure and condemnation.
 
Google Books
20 October 1832, The New-York Mirror (New York, NY), pg. 127, col. 3:
This cannot be promoted by puffery, of which now the public are heartily tired, but by candid, frank criticism, written without fear or favor.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Without fear or favor
Author: Neil MacNeil
Publisher: New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co. [©1940]
Edition/Format:   Book : English
Notes:
A picture of the modern American newspaper by the assistant managing editor of the New York times.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Without fear or favor : the New York Times and its times
Author: Harrison E Salisbury
Publisher: New York : Times Books, ©1980.
Edition/Format:   Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The paper’s papers : a reporter’s journey through the archives of the New York Times
Author: Richard F Shepard
Publisher: New York : Times Books, ©1996.
Edition/Format:   Book : English : 1st ed
Abstract:
The thirty-nine-year-old publisher of the Chattanooga Times who came to New York in 1896 was anything but stuffy. He was an unusual combination: a fair and highly principled man who was also a risk-taker with a rare talent for business dealing.
Ochs drew the respect of the owners, but they were reluctant to give control of The Times to the young rustic from Tennessee. But his powers of persuasion, and his ability to win support from influential persons, eventually swayed the New Yorkers. On August 19, the famous declaration of principles appeared on the editorial page. Ochs, still at the Madison Avenue Hotel, labored over it, using the hotel stationery, rewriting it by hand in at least three versions until he was satisfied that it said what he wanted it to say. It was a statement that promised to cover everything “in language that is parliamentary in good society,” to get the news out fast and to present it “impartially, without fear or favor.”
 
New York (NY) Times
Without Fear or Favor
Published: August 19, 1996
Exactly 100 years ago today, Adolph S. Ochs, the founding father of the modern Times, published a declaration of principles in these pages setting forth his goals for the respectable but failing newspaper he had just taken over.
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To undertake the management of The New-York Times, with its great history for right doing, and to attempt to keep bright the lustre which Henry J. Raymond and George Jones (the paper’s founding publishers) have given it is an extraordinary task. But if a sincere desire to conduct a high-standard newspaper, clean, dignified, and trustworthy, requires honesty, watchfulness, earnestness, industry, and practical knowledge applied with common sense, I entertain the hope that I can succeed in maintaining the high estimate that thoughtful, pure-minded people have ever had of The New-York Times.
 
It will be my earnest aim that The New-York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is parliamentary in good society, and give it as early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved; to make of the columns of The New-York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.
 
There will be no radical changes in the personnel of the present efficient staff. Mr. Charles R. Miller, who has so ably for many years presided over the editorial pages, will continue to be the editor; nor will there be a departure from the general tone and character and policies pursued with relation to public questions that have distinguished The New-York Times as a non-partisan newspaper—unless it be, if possible, to intensify its devotion to the cause of sound money and tariff reform, opposition to wastefulness and peculation in administering public affairs, and in its advocacy of the lowest tax consistent with good government, and no more government than is absolutely necessary to protect society, maintain individual and vested rights, and assure the free exercise of a sound conscience.
ADOLPH S. OCHS, New-York, Aug. 18, 1896