While reading the transcript of a New York Times staff meeting, a Lily Tomlin line came to mind: “No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”

In this case, it is also impossible not to be disheartened and furious. The transcript shows that the rot of bias at the Times is far beyond the pale and there is no hope of recovery. Yet not a single person there declared the obvious — that the paper is ­betraying its principles.

Rigor in reporting and restraint in judgment once made the Gray Lady noble. Now she is dead, her homicide an inside job.

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The transcript, leaked to Slate, reveals a confederacy of ignorance and bigotry involving hundreds of people. The ringleader is executive editor Dean Baquet, who fires the fatal shot into the credibility of his paper.

By giving reporters and editors license to try to stop Donald Trump from becoming president, then letting them peddle the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, Baquet helped unleash the ­hatred that is tearing America apart. Never before has a single media institution played such a destructive role in the nation’s life.

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