No, it suggests that the fact-checking was nil, as long as what he wrote conformed to the editor's prejudices.
Is this SOP at all newspapers? Call me dumb, but I assumed that editors were there to occasionally/sometimes/frequently check sources?
You've got it! I use this throughout my novel to skewer the liberal media. The villain understands this dynamic, so he provides a "right-wing gun-nut militia fanatic" patsy for the stadium assault rifle massacre.
He understands this false culprit will be accepted eagerly by the media, with almost no digging for deeper truths. And he's right.
The villain calls his concept "probable culpability", the converse of the well known "plausible deniability."
Just commit an outrageous gun crime, and leave a "disturbed veteran" with an AK-47 nearby for the SWAT boys to shoot. Case closed.