Big, if true:

Breaking: Unconfirmed reports of ballistic missiles hitting largest US military base Ain Al-Assad in #Iraq & massive explosions, via IRGC Telegram channels. — Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 3, 2020

And it’s not true, which even she acknowledges. The problem is, however, she’s a blue check for the NYT and her bogus tweet is still going viral with nearly 2000 retweets, and counting:

Update: These reports of attacks on US base are not true according to Iraqi military officials. https://t.co/TBV26xxLcf — Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 3, 2020

What was her rush to get this out there on Twitter?

Unconfirmed is right because this is just not true at all https://t.co/RDxTUua3qC — Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 3, 2020

It never should’ve been tweeted in the first place:

This turned out to be false. Even if it were true, it's wholly irresponsible for journalists to tweet something like this. Adding "unconfirmed" doesn't work. The @nytimes and its reporters MUST have a higher standard. https://t.co/M6c4jADnWU — Alex Heuer (@alexheuer) January 3, 2020

A major fail in progress:

The American news business sure looks doubleplus ready to cover a war respsonsibly in the social media age https://t.co/MJDKbgd5lP — Chris Turner (@theturner) January 3, 2020

This is just helping Iran:

No, #Iran didn't Attack #US. Sleep in peace tonight. Reports of explosions at Ain al-Assad in #Iraq are unconfirmed however it's spreading in social media like wild fire. Possible propaganda/fake news operation by #Iran. https://t.co/dE9g5Ku32l — Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh (@mayukhrghosh) January 3, 2020

It’s LONG past time for her to delete this:

Delete this lying tweet, then delete your lying account. https://t.co/EviYYZ7lZM — Hammy ✈ (@e2pilot) January 3, 2020

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