‘Sources Say’; The media’s hatred of Trump is destroying American journalism.

The American Spectator  "MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell lives a secret double life performing as a drag queen in New Jersey gay bars, a source tells me. While there have long been rumors that O’Donnell enjoys dressing up in women’s clothing, evidence of his transvestite fetish has been difficult to obtain. Yet my source assures me that such evidence exists, and as for gossip about O’Donnell’s addiction to the rare narcotic Ibogaine … Well, has O’Donnell ever denied it?

"You could justify reporting almost anything by the nonexistent “journalism ethics” of Lawrence O’Donnell. On live TV Tuesday night, the MSNBC host told his audience that Donald Trump had obtained loans from Deutsche Bank co-signed by “Russian billionaires with ties to Vladimir Putin.” The basis for this claim, according to O’Donnell, was “a single source close to Deutsche Bank.” O’Donnell then added an interesting caveat: “If true … ”

"Yes, of course. It would be a big scoop, if true. And my exclusive reporting that O’Donnell spends his Saturday nights in drag cabaret shows, wearing high heels and fishnet stockings while twerking to Lady Gaga songs? A major bombshell, if true. As it is, however, I hesitate to vouch for my source’s assertion that the MSNBC host is an Ibogaine-addicted transvestite.

" Excuse my sarcasm, but what O’Donnell did Tuesday night was the kind of amateur blunder that would have gotten any reporter thrown down the stairs by the late Wes Pruden. “Get it first, get it right” was Pruden’s motto as editor at the Washington Times, and woe be unto any reporter who got it wrong, especially on a big story. One of the basic rules of reporting is that you cannot base a major story on a single source, especially an anonymous source. If you can’t get your source to go on the record, by name, you’ve got to have some other factual basis — a court document, for example — to justify the story. Otherwise, you undermine the reader’s confidence in your reporting. Why should anyone believe a story based on something as flimsy as “sources say”?" . . .

CNN reports: Jeffrey Epstein has died by suicide, sources say