Unable to bring President Trump on big things - whether of colluding with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, or find any evidence of profiteering in his business enterprises, the press is getting so desperate it's now resorted to nit-picking on small ones. Trouble is, even its nit-picks are all fake news.

Take President Trump's most recent trip to Europe. The New York Times blared:

Trump Appears to Push Aside the Leader of Montenegro

The Guardian howled:

White House photo caption omits husband of Luxembourg's gay PM

The Daily Mirror claimed:

Donald Trump 'caught pretending to listen' at G7 summit - after crucial mistake 'gives him away'

See the pattern? Problem is, none of these stories are true. The president of Montenegro said he wasn't shoved. The White House staff fixed the missing caption without any ado. White House Spokesman Sean Spicer explicitly denied the claim that President Trump was not wearing an earpiece to hear a translation of the Italian prime minister's speech.

And these were just the tail end of a string of such stories, coming at the end of President Trump's trip to Europe.

First, of what value are these nit-pick stories, even if it were possible that they were true/ What great triangulation can be achieved from these tiny snippets of largely irrelevant information? The answer is none, other than a reckless pursuit of Internet clicks.

Getting the story wrong doesn't seem to bother them because they are just going to keep on doing this sort of nit-pick reportage. They have the gas in the car and mean to drive that buggy over the cliff. There's so much fake news now that the inevitable response from their readers is that they're going to tune out.

That's a credibility blow. And the media is shooting itself down if it keeps on reporting this kind of tripe - fake, malevolent and petty.