Earlier this month, one of the intrepid newshounds at MS NOW, intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian, said that his sources had told him that FBI Director Kash Patel had "just landed" in Russia. The obvious intent was to create the impression that Team Trump was working with Putin on any number of issues.
That was, as President Trump likes to say, "fake news."
Patel set the record straight:
MS NOW put me in Russia based on two anonymous sources. I was in Virginia, honoring law enforcement at Liberty University. The network had to correct its false report. This was a basic verification failure. They were wrong about my location, and they are wrong about the successes of this FBI and our partnership with State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement. If a network cannot confirm where I was before putting it on air, how can the public trust its reporting on the work our agents and officers do every day? This is bigger than a false story about me. The men and women of law enforcement deserve accurate reporting while they protect communities and take violent criminals off our streets. Three apologies are owed: to this FBI, to the law enforcement community, and to the American People.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 15, 2026
Eventually the backfire was so intense that Dilanian admitted that it was all BS.
Ken Dilanian has admitted the "Patel in Russia" scoop isn't real, but, of course, he had to pat himself on the back while doing so, "I want to correct reporting from earlier today. I reported that two sources had told us that FBI director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip that had been reported about recently. We've since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S. ...The timing of any potential trip remains unclear. Again, we regret this error and we are transparent about when we make errors. Back to you."
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 14, 2026
Laughably, we're expected to just forget about those moments of journalistic malpractice and just move on.
MS NOW's Dilanian and another reporter had yet another scoop that we're automatically going to be skeptical of, and here it is:
New: FBI agents have expressed deep concern that they could be ordered to take legally questionable steps to investigate dubious claims of election fraud, and state officials are wargaming how to deal with federal intervention. with @CarolLeonnig https://t.co/Dxsh7hsuMQ
— Ken Dilanian (@KDilanianMSNOW) October 28, 2026
🚨🚨NEWWWWW --- @FBI agents are privately sharing a grave concern in recent days: that they'll be ordered to seize voting machines or take other legally questionable steps to disrupt the mid-term elections. @KDilanianMSNOW & me https://t.co/yRbPEznDqM
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) October 28, 2026
We'll take "things that aren't happening" for $500, Alex.
FBI's Rapid Response account gave that "scoop" the roasting it was begging for.
We hear from two high level sources that those concerned agents have “just landed in Russia” - tuning in to MS NOW for more reporting
— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) October 28, 2026
https://t.co/5hbCW7EAnD
— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) October 28, 2026
MS NOW just feeds whoever watches what is assumed they want to hear, which is often miles and miles away from the truth.
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