1/ And now Fox News - yes, Fox News! - confirms the story from The Atlantic about Trump talking shit about veterans. For what it's worth, I'll share my thoughts from a journalism perspective. https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1301972236790886402

2/ A story using anonymous sources is easy to deny, even if it comes from a respected journalist at a respected publication. But, when other reputable news organizations (AP, Washington Post etc...) start getting confirmation that the story is accurate, it gets hard to tamp down.

3/ It's worth noting that magazine fact-checking is often painstakingly thorough. Nobody wants to get sued. So it's highly unlikely a publication like The Atlantic runs a story like that unless it's rock solid.

But regardless, that reporting is now buttressed by other reports.

4/ And again, those other news agencies aren't going to run with confirmation unless they think the confirmation is rock solid. Have there been big stories hung on anonymous sources that turned out to be false? Of course. But rarely if ever are those stories backed up by the...

5/ ...reporting of other news organizations. Generally speaking, when the dominoes start to fall like this, the story has teeth.

Which brings us to the next question: Why is this happening? It's not just that The Atlantic got military people to talk about this.

6/ Now other military sources for other reporters are willing to confirm the information. This could be purely coincidental. Or it could be that high-ranking people in the military have finally had it and are preparing to make sure voters know the truth. You may not like...

7/ ...the anonymous approach. But for any military person, this would be a monumentally difficult decision. It flies in the face of a culture that centers around following orders and respecting the chain of command.

We'll know more soon enough, I imagine.

8/ I was wary of this story when I first read it yesterday. It's not that I don't believe Trump is a horrible, unpatriotic turd - I ABSOLUTELY believe that. It's just the anonymous sourcing that gave me pause.

9/ But the speed with which it has been matched by other news organizations, up to and including Fox News (!), makes me think it's solid. And likely to get much worse for Trump. END