“Jussie Smollett, one of the stars of the television show ‘Empire,’ was attacked in Chicago by 2 assailants who yelled racial and homophobic slurs,” tweeted the New York Times on Jan. 29.

Mark the tone of absolute certainty about an unconfirmed claim. Many other news outlets took the same tack. “Celebrities, lawmakers rally behind Jussie Smollett in wake of brutal attack,” reported ABC News. “Jussie Smollett Performs at Troubadour Just Days After Chicago Attack: ‘I Had to Be Here Tonight,’ ” read a Los Angeles Times headline. Many commenters linked the alleged attack to larger alleged sicknesses: “The racist, homophobic attack on Jussie Smollett is far-right America’s endgame,” tweeted GQ, in a sentiment echoed by many others.

Possibly it might be wise to establish whether an incident actually happened before leaping to conclusions about it. Remember Covington? Oh, right, that was almost a whole month ago.

The certain tone of the reports about an attack that Jussie Smollett may or may not have suffered was notable given the strange circumstances surrounding the actor’s claims. The Times would have been on firm ground if it simply added six letters — “says he” — between the words “Empire” and “was attacked.” And the Times is generally wary of publishing as fact information that may or may not turn out to be true. So why put their reputation at risk by abandoning normal practice? I and many others expressed doubt that any attack had transpired the way Smollett described it.

This week Chicago’s ABC7 News reported that “multiple sources,” presumably in the Chicago Police Department, had called the alleged attack “staged” by Smollett and two accomplices. CBS2 News and the Chicago Tribune made similar reports. A spokesman for the CPD rushed to say that the sources cited were “uninformed and inaccurate.”

That there might be more to this story than met the eye seemed evident from the outset. Who walks around Chicago on a frigid night with a rope and a bottle of bleach looking for gay black men to attack — but then suddenly turns and runs away from the victim without doing him much injury or robbing him?

Yet Cory Booker went on Twitter to say, “The vicious attack on Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching.” Joe Biden: “What happened today to Jussie Smollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts.” Kamala Harris: “This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin.”

One progressive reaction that case might be a hoax is simple dejection. Our friends on the left are saddened that a gay black man perhaps wasn’t viciously beaten up by Trump-loving thugs.

How dismal it must be to be a progressive, to rest your political purview on extremely dark assumptions about the nature of the American psyche. No matter what the era or who is in charge, disaster always looms, and any weird anecdote that supports the larger doom narrative is eagerly, even devoutly, believed.