The failing New York Times couldn’t help itself. They tried to tie an old flyer put out in 2011 by Sarah Palin’s PAC to Wednesday’s shootings targeting Republicans.

Ms. Palin’s PAC put out the flyer showing a map of targeted electoral districts with cross hairs and the media back then tried to tie it to the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords six years ago. But the ridiculous  connection was disproven after we learned the shooter, who was anything but a Tea Party Republican, had been planing his attack well before the flyer came out.

After the New York Times made the obscenely absurd connection today, Palin, who’s no stranger to a fight, struck back on her Facebook page.

“With this sickening NYT’s editorial, the media is doing exactly what I said yesterday should not be done. Despite commenting as graciously as I could on media coverage of yesterday’s shooting, alas, today a perversely biased media’s knee-jerk blame game is attempting to destroy innocent people with lies and more fake news. As I said yesterday, I’d hoped the media had collectively matured since the last attack on a Representative when media coverage spewed blatant lies about who was to blame. There’s been no improvement. The NYT has gotten worse.” – SP

The New York’s Times late Thursday issued the following statement. “We got an important fact wrong, incorrectly linking political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Giffords. No link was ever established.”

Well Duh! How embarrassing for the failing New York Times. Yet no apology. Today the paper lost what little credibility it had left.

The National Review didn’t mince words in chastising the News York Times writing, “Let’s be blunt. In its zeal to create moral equivalencies and maintain a particular narrative about the past, the Times flat-out lied.”

Lying, fake news, liberal bias, call it what you want. Simply put the mainstream media is so driven by ideology you honestly can’t trust a word they print.

Dan Fagan is a former television news reporter, journalism professor, newspaper columnist, and radio talk show host. He grew up in New Orleans and currently lives there. He is a regular contributor for The Hayride. If you have a news tip for Mr. Fagan you can reach him at faganshow@gmail.com or 504-458-2542.