The New York Times has only admitted the truth about Covid in service of a larger lie.

The only thing I’d add to Jeff’s worthwhile post “Now It Can Be Told,” about the media’s complicity in covering for Covid authorities and Biden’s health, is that publishing a piece after it matters is not only unhelpful but also an attempt to obfuscate the publication’s role in delegitimizing opposing views.

In 20 or 30 years, when the difference between a 2022 or 2025 tell-all has become hazy, the Times will be remembered as the truth-telling publication, and its reporting will be cited in academic papers as an authority. It’s not only that what the “paper of record” has produced has little to no function, but it’s also that they are lying to all future researchers about their role in the most febrile years of the pandemic.

It is gross. It is obscene. They’ll likely get away with it.

Conservatives can be looked at sideways when we get in our cups and rail about the mainstream media — and, to be fair, it can be a bit much at times. But it’s instances like this — when the Times has lied, then admitted the truth in service of a larger lie — that we are vindicated in our vexed status. It’s not much of a prize, but having a ready, nonpartisan example of why the nation’s leading paper is full of it is something.

In summary, watching the Gray Lady cover her backside has a lot less Jessica Rabbit and a whole lot more “Cask of Amontillado.”