For months, the corporate media and political drumbeats have been thumping the same old chestnuts: Donald Trump is Putin’s puppet, Hillary Clinton‘s epic defeat is somehow not valid, and any journalist who asked for incontrovertible evidence of Russian collusion is a Kremlin agent.

For several weeks at a time, we’ve also seen pundit parties with an open buffet table of groupthink and “stated-as-fact” proclamations that Russia “hacked the election.” Trump’s inner circle and possibly Trump himself are a stooge of Russia, was the major news theme of the past two months.

Well, if Trump’s a puppet, he needs new strings.

Because if Trump is living under some type of dark, Putin-extortion cloud that holds damning financial or embarrassing social information over him, it would be highly stupid of the Donald to claim Russia is somehow covering for Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad‘s alleged chemical weapons attack on his own people.

But, that’s exactly what Trump did Tuesday, dispensing his administration to suggest Russia had forewarning about the Syrian government’s alleged chemical attacks. He also claimed both Russia and Syria had put forth “false narratives” about the attack.

Make no mistake—I’m no fan of President Trump (despite the establishment, pro-Clinton trolls accusing me and others of being Kremlin super spies). It brings me no pleasure to toss points his way, but it is journalists’ jobs to call a spade a spade.

If President Trump and his inner circle were truly puppets for Russia—or colluded with Russia to catapult him into the White House—it’s pretty much political suicide to wage a war of words and accusations over Russia potentially being complicit in a chemical weapons attack. Especially if, as has been alleged in a not-so-subtle whisper campaign, that the Kremlin has “kompromat” on Trump.

So, alas, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the rest of the usual suspects are already out with introspective segments and pieces exploring whether they rushed to judgment on the evil, Cold-War 2.0 that saw Bolshevik Trump serving as Putin’s play toy.

Of course not!

Because in corporate media, you can toss out baseless propaganda uninterrupted for months—to avoid actual reporting or investigation into the reason millions of Americans have turned against bought-off politicians and media—and then face no accountability when reality reenters the building.

And this dance goes on and on; “reporters” and pundits will gorge on groupthink based off speculative nonsense, ignoring all evidence—or lack there of—to the contrary. The worst part: all of these folks think they’re actually performing journalism, while ignoring the actual scandals permeating America.

You know, like Flint, Michigan still unable to drink its water three years after being poisoned (and now facing water shutoffs for poison water); East Chicago, Indiana being lead-poisoned for three decades with no government action; banks continuing to try and bilk their customers while President Trump takes a machete to financial regulations; states blocking cities from raising the minimum wage; and a countless list of other injustices that get no coverage.

I guess actual scandal that affects everyday peoples lives are useless if they don’t mirror the Rocky IV plot; no, those stories are just not sexy enough for the living-in-an-ivory-tower-corporate media.

Who, collectively, have a lot of explaining to do about its Russian roulette propaganda that was more what the collective establishment wanted to be true than was reporting based on provable facts.

You know, that thing called journalism.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.