You know that feeling when you hit the "send" button and wonder to yourself, "gee I sure hope that wasn't 'reply-to-all.'"

It kind of felt that way over at the New York Times earlier this evening.

A message that was perhaps intended to have been an inside communication got sent to The New York Times' Twitter feed instead.

People noticed.

"The role of declaring the winner of a presidential election in the U.S. falls to the news media. The broadcast networks and cable news outlets have vowed to be prudent."

You don't remember that from Schoolhouse Rock? It was the one right after "How a Bill Becomes a Law," I think.

Besides, they'll be "prudent," so it's all good.

How do we know it's real? Could it perhaps have been a deep fake? A false flag? A Russian ploy?

Nope, they deleted it. (Language warning at link.)

And then patiently explained that what they just said was the opposite of what they meant to say.

Out loud, that is.

It was a matter of being "imprecise." Happens all the time.

Just to clear it up once and for all, here's what they originally said.

"The role of declaring the winner of a presidential election in the U.S. falls to the news media."

And here is what they meant to say.

"The news media... does not declare the winner of the election."

Totally innocent!

That's why we should all totally believe this.