Calling Mr. Orkent... Mr. Orkent...? Anybody home...?

The New York Times, in the guise of a piece on a Mesopotamian Art exhibit, repeats the lie:

Until last year, few Americans felt drawn to museum shows featuring Mesopotamian antiquities. But the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April focused new attention on this ancient civilization, and its glories are now the subject of two lavish shows.

Emphasis mine...

It's enough to make one paranoid. Just when that mendacious meme about the "looting" of the Baghdad Museum had just about lived its life - WHAM - the Times has to pump new breath into it.

Am I losing it? Has my world view changed THAT MUCH? Has the Times changed radically in the last few years?

I remember when the Times on the Web was my primary source for in-depth coverage on just about everything. Now, they seem to have as much credibility and objectivity as Fidel Castro's "Gramma".