Almost as remarkable as Hillary Clinton’s tale of running from sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia is the extent to which her tale has been described by most of the media as almost anything other than a plain old lie.

Hillary herself, faced with footage of the sniper-free ceremony on the tarmac, offered an assortment of euphemisms from which to choose: “a minor blip”…”I misspoke”…”just a misstatement.” Apparently taking a hint, the New York Times ran a headline about Hillary’s “Misstatement ^[1].” ABC ^[2] and CBS ^[3] called it a “Mistake.” Al Jazeera plunked for an “Error ^[4].” The Press Association went with a “blip ^[5].”

In this climate, how long before we see the legend of George Washington and the Cherry Tree revised for modern politics: “Father, I cannot tell a misstatement.”