Like most American consumers of news, we’ve become accustomed to watching the Beltway commentariat run around like so many headless chickens with every non-story emanating from the Trump administration. We’ve learned to wait for verification, to double-check, and go back to original sources before believing alarming claims. For as often as not the five-alarm stories of the day turn out to be misleading or false.

But on Thursday, NBC News reported a story that was truly disturbing, and well-sourced enough to get our attention.