HARD QUESTION: Have journalists connected too many dots that do not really add up?

Did we see that coming? . . . the Mueller news had dire consequences for the press:

It will be a reckoning for President Trump, to be sure, but also for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, for Congress, for Democrats, for Republicans, for the news media and, yes, for the system as a whole…

New York Times in a separate piece by Peter Baker, 

 This is what Matt Taibbi had to say:

It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD

The Iraq war face plant damaged the reputation of the press. Russiagate just destroyed it 

" This is a damning page one admission by the Times. Despite the connect-the-dots graphic in its other story, and despite the astonishing, emotion-laden editorial the paper also ran suggesting “We don’t need to read the Mueller report” because we know Trump is guilty, Baker at least began the work of preparing Times readers for a hard question.

Nobody wants to hear this, but news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is headed home without issuing new charges is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media.

As has long been rumored, the former FBI chief’s independent probe will result in multiple indictments and convictions, but no “presidency-wrecking” conspiracy charges, or anything that would meet the layman’s definition of “collusion” with Russia. . . .
To be unaware of this is mind-boggling, the journalistic equivalent of walking outside without pants. . . "
READ MORE > https://taibbi.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-wmd-times-a-million 
_________________________________________________________________________
We had the sense to eventually look inward a little in the WMD affair, which is the only reason we escaped that episode with any audience left. Is the press even capable of that kind of self-awareness now? WMD damaged our reputation. If we don’t turn things around, this story will destroy it.

Image by Mike Maguire