Ken Dilanian went on air Monday with what MS NOW treated as breaking news: FBI Director Kash Patel had "just landed in Russia" for a planned trip. Two sources, Dilanian said. Big story. The kind of scoop that gets shared forty thousand times before anyone checks it.

Patel was in Lynchburg, Virginia, at a law enforcement appreciation event.

Ben Williamson, who posted the correction receipts on X, called it one of the strangest experiences of his life — watching MS NOW breathlessly report Patel's arrival in Moscow while simultaneously receiving photos of the FBI Director shaking hands with cops in the Shenandoah Valley. The network's two sources apparently couldn't outperform a guy with a phone and a group chat.

Dilanian had to go back on camera and deliver the correction himself. "I want to correct reporting from earlier today," he said. "I reported that two sources had told us that FBI director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a planned trip... We've since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today and remains in the U.S."

Remains in the U.S. That's a polite way of saying the man never left and they reported a falsity to viewers.

Patel's response was four words. He posted "From Russia, with Love…" — the kind of reply that works precisely because it doesn't dignify the error with outrage. No press conference, no demand for an apology, no letter from attorneys. Just a James Bond reference and the implicit suggestion that MS NOW might want to try calling the FBI before reporting the FBI Director's international travel.

Larry O'Connor had a shorter take: "Fusion Ken strikes again." The nickname is a callback, and Dilanian has earned it. This is the same reporter, the same network, the same editorial pipeline that spent years treating anonymous sourcing as gospel when the target was anyone adjacent to Trump. The rebrand from MSNBC to MS NOW was supposed to signal a fresh start. New name, same instincts.

The network previously lost its White House press credentials — access that was later restored. That restoration was apparently not accompanied by any internal review of how stories get sourced, vetted, or aired. Two anonymous sources said the FBI Director flew to Russia. Nobody at the network called the FBI. Nobody checked flight manifests. Nobody wondered whether the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation might have a publicly known schedule.

Four words from Patel. One on-air correction from Dilanian. And a network that changed its name but kept its sources.