There is a currently a debate as to whether "Journalists" know what they are doing when they are peddling false anti-Trump stories, whether they are taken in by their sources etc.
DO NOT BOTHER ANALYZING THEM
They are not journalists, they are propaganda outlets. /1

These propaganda outlets are not aiming to inform (and sometimes get stories wrong).
THEY ARE OUT TO HURT TRUMP, pure and simple.
I know this first hand.
I am a mom and an academic in England who had NOTHING to do with American politics.
Just after the 2016 election, /2

My name was given to the newspapers. A completely false story was circulated among journalists that I, a respected British academic, an expectant mother, was a spy for Putin had seduced Trump's National Security Advisor on behalf of Russian intelligence!
The whole story

was completely farcical, false on its face.
I met Gen. Flynn once in my life, when he worked for Obama and visited my university. That's it.
I denied the story. Everyone present denied the story.
But it didn't matter to the media.
They printed the story anyway.
TO HURT TRUMP