FYI, I absolutely read your statement as claiming that all politicians and media outlets are now guilty of "'total fabrication of facts'." I appreciate the clarification, but that sentiment is widespread, so I accepted it at face value.

> It is very unhealthy to use any 'one source' for news in the US right now for this reason,

Strongly disagree here and feel like this attitude is also part of the problem. It's much better to get your news from a single source who employ a large number of fact-checkers and are willing to issue retractions, than it is to get it from a "variety" of sources repeating the same claims with absolutely no independent verification of the facts.

Multiple sources reporting something does not make it credible if the sources in question aren't performing independent verification. Many "news" sites today engage in circular references where they say, "blah is reporting...", then another site picks that up and reports that "multiple sites are reporting..." And none of them bother with independent verification. This is often exploited to spread hoaxes.