We’re well past the point of urging the press to do better. Something is seriously wrong

The news media in the United States are horribly, perhaps irrevocably, broken.

In the past 72 hours, there have been two major, all-consuming news cycles based on either inaccurate or outright false allegations. Equally distressing as the fact that the press promoted these stories, despite obvious red flags, is that some reporters continue to cling to the original bogus narratives. Because when it comes to accusations leveled against President Trump and conservatives, many in the nation’s largest and most powerful newsrooms are less arbiters of the truth and more active participants in the toxic, hyperpartisan culture wars.

The first major news cycle came Thursday evening after BuzzFeed News published a report titled, “President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project.”

The press went wild, enthusiastically sharing and repeating the story’s central claim, ignoring all the while that it is based entirely on the say-so of two anonymous sources who say they’re familiar with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Newsrooms eagerly parroted the BuzzFeed News article despite its authors contradicting each other over whether they had actually seen proof of the allegation made by their anonymous sources.

The three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC News, dedicated an impressive 27 minutes Friday to covering the report. The talking heads at CNN and MSNBC used the word “impeach” roughly 200 times Friday morning and afternoon while discussing how they thought the article would play out for the White House. Laughably enough, newsrooms and pundits also referred to the story as a “ bombshell” while also leaning heavily on the “ if true” qualifier.

Then came Friday evening.