It was a vignette that the Obama administration didn’t want The New York Times to publish. Barack Obama held an off-the-record meeting with journalists last week to explain his antiterrorism strategy and the ground rule was that anything Obama said could not be attributed to him. It was a way for Obama to mold the media into a more forceful propaganda arm for his agenda. Initially, the Times wasn’t going to play the commander in chief’s political game. In an article originally published Thursday evening, the Times wrote, “In his meeting with the columnists, Mr. Obama indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments. Republicans were telling Americans that he is not doing anything when he is doing a lot, he said.” You don’t hear Obama complaining how the media has distorted gun culture in this nation, but he defended his antiterrorism policies by blaming criticism of his strategies on the media and stupid Americans.

Later that night, as The Federalist reported, the editors did not stand up to the executive branch like the time it published the Pentagon Papers. Instead, it deleted the telling paragraph and inserted a paragraph of administration catch phrases. Commentator Charles Krauthammer said of Obama’s statement, “This is his usual professorial condescension.” Over the weekend, Obama doubled down on his assertion, telling NPR the media has been hyping the Islamic State: “All you have been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you.” As for the citizens of this nation worried about security, let them eat cake.