President Donald Trump pours the remainder of his fish food out as he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe feed fish in a koi pond at the Akasaka Palace, Monday, Nov. 6, 2017, in Tokyo. Trump is on a five country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

There is nothing quite like catnip for the anti-Trump media of all stripes as some perceived faux pas by President Trump. This was on full display in Japan just a few hours earlier. Apparently, it is a tradition that visitors being welcomed to Akasaka Palace in Tokyo are invited to join their host in feeding the koi. Simple one would think. But not if you are deeply dishonest.

Feeding a frenzy: Trump sparks social media outrage after dumping box of fish food into pond of Japanese koi carp https://t.co/W9co9ajVJj pic.twitter.com/hRF5Uc5kW3

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 6, 2017

This is CNBC’s reporter:

https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/927418960798040065

TRUMP: So Obama just gave them a few flakes?

ABE: Yes. These ceremonial Koi are very sensitive to foo— pic.twitter.com/fMSXuAtzME

— TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) November 6, 2017

Obama did it better, as usual. pic.twitter.com/At6CxQ81FC

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) November 6, 2017

https://twitter.com/zackwhittaker/status/927398233143414784

https://twitter.com/BaghdadTed/status/927437861414060033

In fact, Prime Minister Abe fed the fish exactly the same way:

Trump and Japan PM Shinzo Ave decide to dump entire boxes of fish food into a koi pond at the Japanese palace. pic.twitter.com/aPAP6IdRhP

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 6, 2017

Though you’ll note CNN got in on the act selectively editing a video of the event to remove Abe from the picture and thus keep the bogus story alive:

Trump joined his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in feeding fish, emptying the whole box of food into a koi pond https://t.co/Aho7J2YUru pic.twitter.com/dPB9xwKNOB

— CNN (@CNN) November 6, 2017

There have been a couple of bursts of conscience. Christina Wilkie from CNBC, for instance:

This is correct, and my tweet about the Koi pond was incorrect. I’ve since deleted it. https://t.co/uxMhj4EYBp

— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) November 6, 2017

I've deleted this tweet which was based on multiple news reports but the video clearly shows Abe dumping his box of food first. pic.twitter.com/nsdt8U0awj

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 6, 2017

What is striking about this is that absolutely no one who a) was at the event or b) saw video of the event could have concocted this story. It seems to have been based on still images taken at the site even though the still image collection would have inevitably included Prime Minister Abe’s feeding the fish. This all implies that someone in AFP and maybe in other news services made the deliberate decision to run the Trump story knowing it was false.