Sublime

Hasson says once hired at Snopes, LaCapria wrote “fact checks” that read more like an opinion column.

The question is revealing. It tells me that the practice of public officials shopping “dirt” to reputable journalists has become so common, this twentysomething I’ve never met before has no compunction about raising it openly in front of his colleagues. He thinks his job, as he collects a salary from taxpayers, is to conduct and spread opposition

They raise rational-sounding objections to the story, though one-sided and often entirely false. They take verbal off-the-record swipes at the journalists pursuing the story, whispering disparaging side comments to chip away at the reporter’s reputation in the eyes of his colleagues.