Revisiting one of the first big stories on the now controversial Islamic center near ground zero, a New York Times piece from last December titled “Muslim Prayers Fuel Spiritual Rebuilding at Ground Zero,” I found myself dumbstruck. As you probably guessed from the headline, the story was a laughably sunny gloss on an issue that was obviously a powder keg from the start.

It reminded me a of a joke from last season’s “30 Rock,” where Alec Baldwin’s character was being told that in order to protect the feelings of a co-worker, he needed to “lie to her, coddle her, protect her from the real world.”