This smells like an offhand/joke comment that you're taking as fact. Can you link me to a single instance of NYT/WaPo basing a story off of unverified Twitter posts? I read a lot of news, including NYT, and I've never seen this... I've seen them referencing Twitter posts, but not basing a story solely off of them as some kind of sole source. (But of course, it's not like any individual human being could read even 1% of the NYT's total output...)

Number two, it's worth noting that Maher is visibly high/intoxicated during his podcasts. Not shaming those activities but uhhhhhhh... I would not rank anybody's stoned rambling thoughts (including my own) after a joint and two martinis very highly on the credibility scale.