I think the commenter is addressing the overall implication of the article (that "fake news" is common and widespread) rather than the specific instance they're investigating. If this was a one-off, it's not really newsworthy.

You're right. I think the article might be casting doubt on the sources after reddit which carried the story, but I feel the main issue the article addresses is false news stories, not the credibility of news sources, which Jerry2 seems to be talking about.

The point of the article is to discourage 'non-approved' news sources because they must all be fake like this bus thing was. Its propaganda to try and keep the NYT relevant despite their lies and deception such as promoting the war in Iraq.

To be fair to the article, the origin of the misconception was a single tweet, which I'm not sure really counts as "non-approved" news sources. The second stage of the stories spread was reddit, which I think too isn't really a news source, or may be that's what you mean.

Of course primary sources are 'non-appoved'. Thats why CNN was caught telling listeners that it was illegal for anyone but CNN to read the WikiLeak Podesta emails.

When I saw the bus thing I questioned how the guy knew the buses were full of protestors, and then stopped caring because it was just some guy on twitter. The MSM want you to blindly accept their narrative and lose the ability to tell fact from fiction.