The Hill runs uncritical Rachel Frazin repetition of anonymous New York Times anti-Trump charge

On Saturday, The Hill ran a Rachel Frazin article "Mexico agreed to take action at the border months before Trump deal to avert tariffs: NYT."

You may see the highly dubious account shared, online. It is being breathlessly circulated by anti-Trump partisans for whom every scrap of propaganda harmful to America's chosen president, despite its flawed nature, must be rushed before voters without appropriate caveat.

Anything goes, in their unsightly crusade.

The Hill frequently confects biased and suspect commentary. Frazin's hit-piece follows in that vein. It is based entirely on a single article from the New York Times, a paper already notorious for calculatedly skewed reporting. (Following Trump's 2016 triumph, Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, and Executive Editor Dean Baquet implicitly conceded their paper had faltered, in terms of fairness.)

The Times named no sources. It only credited anonymous "officials," who may exist in the real world or may only be the products of Times writers' fever-bubbled imaginings.

Now, reporting that another publication had printed something is legitimate. And exclusive use of anonymous sources doesn't necessarily make a story untrue.

But another way to consider Frazin's The Hill article is as an example of the anti-Trump echo-chamber so much a part of the mainstream media since a Trump candidacy seemed possible.

Frazin did not subject the NYT reporting to even light scrutiny, but merely regurgitated its partisan message. She didn't ask obvious and legitimate questions about what seemed flimsy methodology. Only blared the original allegation to The Hill's audience.

Readers need to be on guard. This case indicates Trump was onto something when he warned of "fake news."

Ironically, in another Frazin piece The Hill ran the same day, the writer dismissed the president's press criticisms; she cast them as mere tools he wielded against "unfavorable coverage of him and his administration."