[Updated 4 p.m.]

In an editorial printed on Christmas day, the New York Times endorsed the so-called living wage bill that’s been lingering in the City Council for nearly two years, calling the legislation “long overdue.” The New York Post, in turn, printed its own editorial the same day, blasting the bill’s supporters for “seeking to drive jobs out of the city.”

The newsprint battle is the latest in a drawn-out dispute over the controversial Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, introduced by two Bronx council members and born out of a heated debate over a shopping mall planned for the Kingsbridge Armory, which would require developers that get significant taxpayer subsidies to pay workers higher wages. (The New York Daily News editorialized against the bill back in May.)

“This bill makes sense,” the piece in the New York Times reads. “A wage of $10 an hour would help lift thousands of New Yorkers above the poverty line.”

It also dismissed the main criticism of the bill–that it would squash economic development–by pointing to other cities, like Los Angeles and Philadelphia, that have similar laws and continue to thrive, and highlighted Mayor Bloomberg’s previous support for a wage mandate bill in 2002 as contradictory to his current, adamant opposition to the idea of a wage requirement.

The Post took aim at Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, considered a frontrunner in a crowded field of contenders expected to run for Mayor in 2013, who announced his support for the bill last week. The editorial called him a “jobless advocate,” who “doesn’t give a hoot about the economy or jobs.”

It also blasted Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., one of the bill’s main supporters and the driving force behind a push for living wages at the Kingsbridge Armory two years ago, for his role in the defeat of the shopping mall plan.

“Puff went the mall. And all the jobs,” it said.

Diaz sent out his own statement following the Times editorial.

“This major endorsement shows that we have momentum on our side, and that more and more New Yorkers agree that the ‘Fair Wages for New Yorkers’ Act is good public policy,” he said.

He also pointed to a recent Quinnipiac Poll which found New Yorkers support the bill by a margin of 74-19 percent.

The legislation currently has the vote of 29 City Council members, but needs 34 to override the almost-certain veto it would get from Mayor Bloomberg. Council Speaker Christine Quinn will decide whether or not to bring the bill up for a vote, and she’s yet to publicly support or oppose it. De Blasio’s endorsement, however, could put extra pressure her–Quinn is also considered a top potential mayoral candidate–to take a stance.