By now you know that Jussie Smollett is out on bail after having been arrested and charged for faking a hate crime (as well as having been accused of mailing himself a threatening letter). Among the outlets that were all over the story and accepted Smollett’s original claims as fact was GQ Magazine, which tweeted about their story this way on January 29th:

The racist, homophobic attack on Jussie Smollett is far-right America's endgame https://t.co/BwleQpSsXt pic.twitter.com/1WiIIsGL7k — GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) January 29, 2019

That thing’s getting ratioed in epic fashion. As of right now, these are the only updates to the story:

Wow. “Operating with the then-set of facts” is a nice touch.

Hell of an editor's note here pic.twitter.com/WWS1z7qpAm — Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) February 21, 2019

In light of the week’s news, that tweet and story are aging worse by the second:

oh still not deleted, that's cool bro. https://t.co/RrL39Rok9s — Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) February 21, 2019

Their endgame is to have you all beclown yourselves? Pretty devious tbh. https://t.co/vn2lYyOuTc — Eric Spencer (@JustEric) February 21, 2019

Maybe delete your account if this is the best you can do https://t.co/BSPwEnNFS4 — Middle Class Anon (@MidClassRepub) February 21, 2019

It is indeed impressive.

Or not. Will you be retracting this? Or nah? https://t.co/fKexkRUL9k — RBe (@RBPundit) February 21, 2019

Dude, I cancelled a GIFT subscription to GQ… — Arthur Boreman Once Held His Breath for 30 Seconds (@ArthurBoreman) February 21, 2019

Kneejerk media reactions to Smollett’s original accusations have left a whole lot of self-beclownings in their wake.