Real fake news

Utterly plausible: the reported murder Tuesday of Russian journalist-in-exile Arkady Babchenko, discovered by his wife bleeding to death with three bullets in his back, seemingly the latest truthteller to fall victim to the death plague that claims so many critics of President Vladimir Putin. Absolutely astonishing: the true story that Babchenko lived to tell the following day at a news conference in Kiev, that he’d worked with Ukrainian intelligence services to stage his own murder in order to thwart a very real plot on his life.

Don’t try this at home. As a rule, journalists are never allowed to lie in service of a higher cause. But Babchenko, who was actually in the crosshairs, had to resort to the most extreme measures to save his life and expose a larger truth. Cut him some slack, and buy advance tickets for the movie sure to come.