Your standard is exactly right.

But I don’t think that’s as cut and dry as what Minhaj did though. The FBI story was the only one that didn’t happen directly to him (with the obvious additions that he called out). He was still involved and knew the guy that was impacted and has those FBI people at their mosque. Sure the cop car head slam didn’t happen. But I don’t think his intent was to make up a completely baseless story about something that he only heard about and harm others’ability to get help when they have those situations happen to them.

The FBI and Police won’t do anything more now than they did before to prevent racism, as the George Floyd murder and the subsequent police violence has shown.

Not justifying the decision, nor trying to de-legitimize how those that have had those things happen to them feel (which we know is a lot more common than reported).

I think the situation has a lot more nuance than the New Yorker cared to report on, which to me calls into question their intent.