NYT was more than happy to print a false story from “an official close”
Fake news is fake. Hugely.
If the paper was honest, it isn't, it would now disclose the naems of those sources. The point of that would be to inform the public who, specifically, is a liar.
These days being a good liar is protected status. My presumption is that if it is in the paper or utterd by an elected official, it is false or misleading. 100%. No exceptions. As a class, these people are incapable of truth.
If the utterance is imporatnt to me I do research on the subject. Sometime what I presumed false turns out to be true.
The Sicknik hoax was exposed as such I think the same day, certainly within a few days. This retraction is more than a month late.