For the past two years the hardworking staff has diligently chronicled the newspaper industry’s Pep Squad for Truth – those preaching-to-the-choir ad campaigns aimed at convincing the American public that real news matters.

Chief among the pom-pom crowd has been the New York Times, which has run expensive TV spots like this one on national networks.

The Times has also peppered its own pages with full-page ads extolling the virtues of journalistic watchdogging.

But now comes this double-truck in Saturday’s edition that focuses on the Times’s integrity in covering . . . pies.

Memo to Timesniks: We know that, for financial reasons, you make a distinction between content – that is, journalism – and product like NYT Cooking.

But housing both in The Truth campaign is not helping your cause.