Examples like this make it look bad for mainstream media sources, as when one of their reporters gets a story incorrect they should call them out on it instead of trying to rationalize the wrongdoing. Both extremes are guilty of doing this by the way, and it's a small wonder why so many Americans have become distrustful of mainstream media sources.
How many Supreme Court Justices must deny NPR's reporting before media outlets believe them?
[reason.com]
I lost faith in the MSM a long time ago Spike as most of them with the exception of Fox, Newsmax and a few others are extremely liberal biased. Hell just look at all the moderators in the presidential debates between Biden and Trump. Every single one of them was extremely biased to Biden and sought to undermine Trump. It just doesn’t seem fair the Trump couldn’t have a single moderator who favored him.
That's how it usually goes. One tells a fake/false story, then the MSM repeats it without fact checking first. Then it's too late. Sometimes some will make retractions, but they're usually in small print buried in a section nobody reads.