Suppose that Donald Trump stops insisting President Obama was born outside the United States, and then saddles Hillary Clinton with starting the rumor in the first place. Is that stretching the truth? An unfounded assertion? An error? A falsehood?

Or is it a flat-out lie?

The New York Times voted for “lie” in writing last Friday about Trump’s decision to abandon the birther movement, using the word in two stories and a front-page headline: “Trump Gives Up a Lie but Refuses to Repent.”

It’s not all that often that The Times newsroom throws around the word “lie,” but Trump seems to bring it out in the place. Another story that ran in recent days used the term to describe Trump’s deception on his plans for a $1 trillion small-business tax cut.

It’s probably not surprising that the word’s swift emergence has provoked some readers.

“There was a time when the front pages of the newspaper printed news. Editorials had their own page,” wrote Kenneth Christiansen. “Apparently that tradition has ended with this year’s presidential campaign. Such phrases as ‘Trump gives up a lie’ and ‘refuses to repent’ are opinions; they belong on the editorial page...I happen to agree with the Times’ assessment of Mr. Trump, but putting it on the front page lessens the Times credibility as an objective, fact-based messenger of the news.”