Am I being harsh? The nation is about to hit the sad milestone of 100 thousand COVID deaths, so why would anyone celebrate it? Who does that? But the New York Times just hyped that number for the front page of the Sunday edition, so it seems like they want to celebrate that number. Because, you know, Trump.

Here’s what the NYT published for their Sunday readers:

The front page of The New York Times for May 24, 2020 pic.twitter.com/d14JhFp4CP

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 24, 2020

Calling the deaths “an incalculable loss,” the NYT also reminds us in a sub-headline:

“They Were Not Simply Names on a List. They Were Us.”

Then, below the sub-headline are these solemn words:

“Numbers alone cannot possibly measure the impact of the coronavirus on America, whether it is the number of patients treated, jobs interrupted or lives cut short. As the country nears a grim milestone of 100,000 deaths attributed to the virus, The New York Times scoured obituaries and death notices of those who died. The 1,000 names here reflect just 1 percent of the toll. None were mere numbers.”

Of course this was red meat for the Trump-haters at Twitter. Markos Moulitsas of the communist progressive website Daily Kos responded with “Trump and his Republicans don’t give a rat’s ass.” Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Penn State, called it “the legacy of Donald Trump.” Then again, Mann’s own legacy consists of concocting the discredited “hockey stick” global warming theory, so he’s got some chutzpah to criticize Trump.

Others also pointed out that President Trump was golfing on Saturday, including the fanatically anti-Trump attorney George Conway, husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. I often wonder if they share the same bed at night.

Never mind that this was the first time Trump has played golf since the pandemic.

Here you go @JoeBiden the 30 second ads write themselves. It took me 10 minutes to make this. Trump golfs while Americans die. Let me know what you guys think. pic.twitter.com/IjvFZLJloH

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) May 23, 2020

But I wonder if that list includes any COVID victims from New York nursing homes. About 5800 deaths came from those sites, which turned into Petri dishes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent 4300 COVID patients into those facilities. But does Cuomo take responsibility for that? Oh, hell no — he blamed President Trump, of course. And even though he reversed the policy, he denied that it led to the thousands of fatalities.

Speaking of nursing home deaths, I also wonder if the New York Times included the names of Janice Dean’s in-laws. Dean, the senior meteorologist at Fox News Channel, said that her husband’s parents died of COVID after exposure in a NYC nursing home.

Janice Dean’s husband, Sean Newman, is a New York City firefighter. Sean’s father Michael was also a firefighter in NYC. But Cuomo repaid the Newman family for their service to the city by allowing COVID to enter the facility where Michael and his wife Delores lived.

Janice Dean told the story on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Not only is it heartbreaking, but it appears there may have been some shady number manipulation as well.

But wait! There’s more!

It appears that the New York Times also has some ‘splainin’ to do about their COVID death list.

A sharp-eyed Twitter user from Chicago noticed that one of the names the NYT placed near the top of the list was that of a very young man. Jordan D. Haynes of Cedar Rapids, IA, was only 27 years old when he allegedly died of COVID. That piqued the curiosity of Timothy Crimmins, who googled his name.

Well, well, well, turns out that young Haynes was a murder victim who was found in his car. From the Cedar Rapids Police Department:

“The Cedar Rapids Police Department says the Linn County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the person found in a vehicle Thursday morning as 27-year-old Jordan D. Haynes.”

Not only that, but a member of our blogging team, Deanna, also noticed a familiar name a few listings down from Haynes. The man’s widow will not be pleased:

“Our former church choir director (name redacted) is on the list just a few people down from the murder victim guy. His widow is an avid Trump supporter and is going to be furious.”

Seems to me that the New York Times put together a slapdash list without checking sources or asking family members if they even wanted their loved ones’ names listed.

However, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the NYT admitted that their list included “at least one name in error.” At least one name in error. So much for the “paper of record.”

Correction: Earlier editions of Sunday's front page included at least one name in error. Our original tweet containing an image of that front page has been deleted and replaced with an image of the late edition.

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 24, 2020

I take the New York Times, simply to be able to access news articles for blogging. (See what I endure for my readers?) I also receive their daily Coronavirus Briefings, and I find that it’s constant gloom and doom. We will never recover fully. It will be years before we get a vaccine. Trump promotes hydroxychloroquine, which of course means that it may kill you — hey, look what the Chinese are doing! Brilliant!

Screenshot/highlights added.

And if you’re a grandparent who aches for their grandchildren, well, a NYT health columnist says you first need to seal the “leaks” in your “quarantine bubble.” Plus, everyone should wear masks, which you are permitted to remove for meals. Well, duh!

“Masks can be removed for meals, but everyone should stay at least six feet apart from the older person.”

The New York Times motto, All the News That’s Fit to Print, still appears on that paper’s masthead as it has since 1897. In fact, the NYT is so proud of that motto that they sell $85 sweatshirts which bear those words. But the Times really should update that motto to All the Anti-Trump News We See Fit to Print. The sanctimonious list of 1000 people who (allegedly) died of COVID-19 is just another example of their bias.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons/cropped/public domain.