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First, who were the Gray Lady’s sources? The Times story quoted two anonymous “law-enforcement officials,” but anyone associated with the Capitol Police, or any investigation, should have known that Sicknick wasn’t struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. Having been misled by its sources, will the Times tell us who they were?
Will the Times apologize for its error? It could have independently confirmed its claims by checking with Sicknick’s family or with the hospital. Or the paper could simply have waited until it had definitive confirmation of the facts and refrained from reporting a falsehood in the meanwhile.
As leftist journalist Glenn Greenwald notes, the Times didn’t check the facts because the paper needed the story to be true. It was essential to the Narrative its editors had settled upon: namely, that Trump and his supporters were “insurrectionists” posing a violent threat to democracy.
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