fact again

[Jonathan Lighter]

You'd think a book subtitled "Lies and Propaganda Throughout History" would have a handle on the meaning of "fact."  Au contraire, Voltaire! Here's journo William Terdoslavich on the Gulf of Tonkin incident in Bill Fawcett, ed., _You Said What?: Lies and Propaganda Throughout History_ (2006; rpt. N.Y.: Harper, 2007), p. 105:  
 
"Johnson and McNamara jumped to conclusions rather than taking the time to get to the truth or letting the matter drop. If the truth that later emerges is at variance with the facts, then average American will call the episode a lie. The court of public opinion renders simple judgments, for anything that is not 100 percent true is a falsehood."
 
While not the most coherent paragraph ever written, this one does contain an ex. of "fact" that can only mean "purported fact; alleged event, etc." 
 
Prolly some kinda typo or syntactical trick, right?  Like all those other exx. You can read more context at Amazon.com. 
 
JL
 
 
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