I had assumed...
I had assumed....
Sounds like this guy did not do any fact checking just assumed.
Aren't reporters suppose to check things out for themselves?
Read the article. He does precisely that, he investigates his assumptions and finds that he was wrong.
While he was slow to realize Snopes had a leftist bias and did not have rigorous processes, I have no objection to him recognizing he had assumed things that turned out not to be so...provided he really meant "assume" in that he was not committed to the proposition, but it was the working assumption before evidence was gathered. What one should not do is "presume" in the sense of committing oneself to a position before having good evidence.