Yet another alleged act of intolerance that the press tried to pin on the Trump administration has been revealed to be a hoax.

It is not an accident that newsrooms keep blowing it on this stuff.

A 12-year-old black student at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, admitted Monday that she lied when she claimed three white students had held her down and forcibly cut her dreadlocks. Amari Allen said she fabricated the entire story, much to the chagrin of a news media that made it a point last week to note that second lady Karen Pence is a part-time teacher at Immanuel.

Supercut: Watch the media credulously report a “racist” attack on Virginia school girl pic.twitter.com/okRVSeaH1F — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 30, 2019

Indeed, newsrooms were keen to let readers know that the school that reportedly suffered an act of racial bigotry has a connection to the Trump administration.

“3 boys at Christian school where Karen Pence teaches allegedly cut black girl's dreadlocks,” read an NBC News headline.

Newsweek reported, “SIXTH GRADERS HOLD DOWN CLASSMATE, CUT HER DREADLOCKS AT PRIVATE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL WHERE KAREN PENCE TEACHES.”

“Three sixth-grade boys allegedly attacked a girl at a private Christian school. The alleged assailants called the young girl’s hair ‘ugly’ and ‘nappy’ while attacking her during recess at Immanuel Christian School — where Karen Pence currently teaches art,” tweeted the Daily Beast.

The New York Times was similarly careful in its reporting to note that, “Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, accepted a part-time art teaching position there in January.”

“This is the school where Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence teaches,” tweeted Washington Post reporter Eugene Scott. “More This school previously made headlines when Karen Pence was criticized for joining its staff despite the school’s position on not hiring LGBT employees.”

It is clear what these headlines and tweets sought to accomplish. By linking the alleged racist act to Pence, newsrooms sought to shame the vice president and his wife while suggesting also that acts of intolerance such as the one Allen “suffered” are a direct result of the Trump presidency.

Allen’s family released a statement this week apologizing for her hoax.

“To those young boys and their parents, we sincerely apologize for the pain and anxiety these allegations have caused. To the administrators and families of Immanuel Christian School, we are sorry for the damage this incident has done to trust within the school family and the undue scorn it has brought to the school,” the statement reads.

It adds, “To the broader community, who rallied in such passionate support for our daughter, we apologize for betraying your trust. We understand there will be consequences, and we’re prepared to take responsibility for them. We know that it will take time to heal, and we hope and pray that the boys, their families, the school and the broader community will be able to forgive us in time.”

Here is a spoiler: The reporters who tried to slime Pence with Allen's allegation will not think about how they “can do better next time.” Many of them know full well that the eventual correction almost never gets the same amount of attention as the original falsehood. Correction or not, the damage is already done. There will not be an end to this sort of sloppy and irresponsible reporting because the dirty not-so-secret is that a significant number of journalists see themselves more as being in the business of “resisting” the Trump White House than keeping the public informed.

There is a reason why this Allen episode feels so familiar. We have been down this road many, many times since Trump was inaugurated in 2017.

In February 2017, for example, newsrooms were eager to condemn the Trump White House after a Detroit man claimed his ailing mother died in Iraq because of the president’s executive order banning travel from several countries that are predominantly Muslim. It was all a lie. Later, in January 2018, newsrooms accused Vice President Mike Pence of segregating men and women at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He was responsible for no such thing. Then there is the media's promotion of the Covington Catholic hoax. That one was particularly egregious.

This keeps happening. Newsrooms keep embracing dubious allegations of harmful, bigoted behavior because too many reporters are not operating as reporters. They are operating instead as political activists. They've already drawn their conclusions about the Trump White House. Their goal now is to find supporting evidence, and things such as Allen's since-recanted story are the perfect match.