With Carson at the top of the national GOP polls in November 2015, the Wall Street Journal made a case that he was lying in his autobiography about having unwittingly taken a psychology test that turned out to be a hoax while studying at Yale. The Wall Street Journal could find no one and no evidence to corroborate Carson’s claim, so it insinuated that he was untrustworthy and guilty of making up stories.

Carson’s account was subsequently corroborated by a fellow Yale student and by previous campus news coverage of the incident in question. The Wall Street Journal never apologized or ran a retraction.

This type of lazy, sloppy and reprehensible coverage regularly characterizes the mainstream media’s reporting about conservatives and Republicans. Time and again, self-styled reputable publications will not hesitate to smear, obfuscate, grandstand and outright lie—all the while insisting that they are the paragon of journalistic integrity.

When Trump came along to trample on their delusions, they naturally took offense, and went to war against him. Their wall-to-wall coverage declaring that Trump had committed crimes with respect to the Russia investigation is a fine example of their attempt at revenge.