ANDREW FERGUSON: The New York Times Invents a Narrative on Comey:

We mastodons who still receive our daily dose of New York Times when the dead-tree version lands on our doorsteps with a dull thud got a special treat Tuesday, a textbook case of the way “the newspaper of record” goes about its business these days. The front page headline read: “Comey Role Recalls Hoover’s F.B.I., Fairly or Not.”

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To fully understand the headline, it helps to know that the Times has a relationship with its readers that is best described as “Pavlovian.” After years of careful training, the newspaper has only to ring a bell to raise the appropriate response from its audience: joy, terror, laughter, sorrow, approval, revulsion, running the gamut from lol to smdh.

Read the whole thing.

Related: New York Times reports 95.7 percent fall in quarterly profit.