The New York Times‘ Jackie Calmes and Louis Story do a better job of correctly reporting the falsehood of the “Blame Dodd” meme being pushed by Republicans and some Democrats.

That position was being questioned at the Capitol. Congressional Republicans, eager to implicate Democrats, initially blamed Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the banking committee, for adding to the economic recovery package an amendment that cracked down on bonuses at companies getting bailout money, but that exempted bonuses protected by contracts, like A.I.G.’s.

Mr. Dodd, in turn, responded Tuesday with a statement saying that the exemption actually had been inserted at the insistence of Treasury during Congress’s final legislative negotiations.

It’s still in he said-she said mode, but at least it’s not a flat out lie being masqueraded as fact.