Here are consecutive paragraphs from a story by David Sanger in Friday's New York Times:

Mr. Cheney stated on "Meet the Press" in March that Iraq "has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said today of Iraq's nuclear program: "Nobody said it was operative. We expressed concerns about the development of a nuclear program, but nobody ever maintained that Iraq had nuclear weapons."

Shouldn't those paragraphs appear in the order in which the point they make is clear -- that is, reversed?

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said today of Iraq's nuclear program: "Nobody said it was operative. We expressed concerns about the development of a nuclear program, but nobody ever maintained that Iraq had nuclear weapons."

Mr. Cheney stated on "Meet the Press" in March that Iraq "has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."

Did someone at the Times insist that these two paragraphs appear in reverse order, in the hope that this would make it less obvious that Ari Fleischer lied?

Or did Sanger censor himself by pulling his own punch?