Only after it matters is Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts admitting she was skeptical of Jussie Smollett’s story all along.

As if to prove just how utterly useless she is as a so-called journalist, Roberts only now is saying that there were “a lot of red flags” in Smollett’s claim he was the victim of a hate crime at the hands of two white Trump supporters armed with a noose and bleach who were out hunting for blacks and gays in downtown Chicago at 2 a.m. in subzero weather.

“Even though that you all were saying early on there was no reason not the believe his story, there were a lot of red flags, that a lot of people saw of people saw. You all had questions. Even though weren’t, of course, going to be public about that,” Roberts said during an interview with Chicago’s superintendent of police Eddie Johnson earlier this week.

Now you tell us, Robin!

Now you tell us you were skeptical of the story, because when you were the only journalist in America who interviewed Smollett, you expressed no skepticism at all. In fact, you didn’t even use the word “alleged” to describe the crime.

Her excuse for her irresponsible softball interview is even worse.

After the hoax blew up and Smollett was arrested and indicted for filing a false report, Roberts said this with a straight face: “We have to remember, at that time, on Tuesday, police officers were saying that his account was consistent. It was credible. And that he was being cooperative. This was all before the interview aired on Thursday and then we found out about the brothers.”

Oh, so the media are now believing the police, are taking everything the police tell them as gospel, are setting aside their own skepticism and doubts, their own professional responsibilities, to defer to law enforcement.

When did this rule change happen?

When did the abdication of independence and every tenet of professional journalism occur?

That is not only a terrible and revealing excuse coming from Roberts, it is also not true. When the agenda suits their left-wing cause, the media are always willing to express doubts about what law enforcement tells them. This is merely a handy shield for Roberts to hide her own biases and cowardice behind.

Jussie Smollett is black and gay, he claimed to be the victim of an attack at the hands of white Trump supporters, and as laugh-out-loud ludicrous as his story was from day one, just like the rest of the media, Roberts wanted that lie out there.

What’s more, were she in fact a journalist — as opposed to a left-wing propagandist, had she actually questioned Smollett in the same way she would a Trump supporter who claimed he was beat on by Antifa or some other left-wing sacred cow, it would have cost her with her establishment media confederates, who were just as invested in keeping the Smollett lie alive, who were just as skeptical as her but chose to cover up that skepticism until it no longer mattered.

This entire affair has exposed Roberts as unreliable, dishonest, and cowardly.

Also, she probably didn’t want to risk losing another opportunity to appear on Smollett’s hit show Empire, like she did last year without disclosing that conflict of interest.

When 60 percent of the public believe journalists are paid by their sources, they don’t just mean cash payoffs; they mean payoffs like the opportunity to appear on a hit series.

There is more than one way to buy a journalist.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.