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

In the past 72 hours, there have been two major, all-consuming news cycles based on 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 certain political targets, many in the nation’s largest and most powerful newsrooms are less arbiters of the truth and more actively hostile and willfully dishonest participants in the toxic culture wars.