Imagine you’re working on a N.Y Times report about the causes of last January’s collision between an Army helicopter and a commuter jet in the vicinity of Reagan National Airport, and you’ve concluded that five factors were to blame.

One of these factors (duhhh) is the inescapable fact that the pilot of the downed helicopter, Cpt. Rebecca Lobach, flat-out caused the collision by not only flying 100 feet too high but ignoring an urgent, last-minute plea from evaluating co-pilot Andrew Eaves for her to turn left to avoid colliding with the jet.

The other four factors (including the air traffic controller having failed to scream “LEFT, for fuck’s sake!….bank fucking left now!”) certainly contributed to the accident, but how do you decide that Lobach ignoring the altitude and not turning left at that crucial moment…how in the world do you figure that’s not the principal cause?

But as Loach was apparently gay and because her family went to some trouble to scrub her social media history in order to shelter her personal life from public scrutiny, you’ve decided it would be safer and less problematic to mention Lobach’s error last, in fifth place. This wouldn’t bury her responsibility for the tragedy but it would certainly minimize it. That way the Times could never be accused of regarding Lobach askew.