I hate the term ‘fake news.’ I’ve heard it enough and read it enough to last a lifetime. There are Facebook trolls who respond to anything published on Facebook, critical of President Trump as “fake news.” It’s worse than hearing “the liberal media.”

Unfortunately, there is a press corps that allows Trump and his surrogates to make it easy to shout “fake news” because the media continues to get basic facts wrong.

Today, Jim Acosta of CNN and Katy Tur of NBC both repeated a claim that has been shown to be incorrect. First, Acosta beclowned himself on television. He repeated the claim that “All 17 intelligence agencies” concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

Acosta said, “Trump said it was only 3 or 4. Where did he get this number?’

Probably from the DNI report, Jim. The one that states the CIA, FBI, and NSA all reached the same conclusion on Russian meddling.

Katy Tur of NBC weighed in, repeating the same falsehood as Acosta:

Deleted. Of course. pic.twitter.com/4nr8gA5xjl

— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 6, 2017

She deleted the tweet because it was wrong but not before it received more than 400 retweets.

James Clapper, in testimony before Congress, said it was three agencies and not seventeen. People keep referring to this statement from DHS and DNI as “proof” that the “17 agencies” claim is correct but look at the agencies listed. Why on earth would the Drug Enforcement Agency or Coast Guard be asked to assess Russian meddling in the election? It’s absurd.

I am somebody that wants to give the press the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their reporting. This constant cry of “fake news” whenever it involves criticism of President Trump makes my brain ache. However, Tur and Acosta are not helping by getting basic facts wrong.