On Tuesday, the Associated Press ran a heavily promoted story reporting that “more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money—either personally or through companies or groups—to the Clinton Foundation.” The story was disseminated widely on social media, including by reporters from other outlets. But that claim—which constituted the opening sentence of the article—and the general tilt of the piece was factually wrong. Its entire premise was built on the kind of tendentious data-shaping that is the bread and butter of opposition researchers, not news outlets.

The next day, Clinton’s campaign manager appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where he was grilled about Clinton’s notorious reluctance to hold press conferences.

These two episodes aren’t officially related, but together they form a microcosm of Clinton’s famously toxic relationship with the news media. She knows as well as anyone that members of the media will advocate unapologetically for greater access for themselves; but in her mind, near-daily stories about how long it’s been since she’s held a press conference are preferable to whatever feeding frenzy would follow an actual press conference.

There is a cyclical, chicken-egg like quality to the dysfunction, where Clinton’s distrust of the press invites added scrutiny, which at times proves unwarranted, and thus breeds more distrust. As we’re seeing this week, breaking the cycle would require Clinton to do things she’s unwilling to do, and the press to do things it is institutionally incapable of doing. The relationship is beyond repair.

You can reach that conclusion no matter where you begin along this recursive loop, but the easiest way is to imagine Clinton hosting a press conference now or anytime in the recent past.