MS NOW — the liberal cable network until recently known as MSNBC — is facing harsh criticism over an article alleging the FBI director, Kash Patel, directed agents to escort an “inebriated” friend of his girlfriend home, which was notably devoid of any details, such as dates or names, to help corroborate the allegations.

Earlier Friday morning, MS NOW published an article alleging that Mr. Patel has repeatedly ordered the security detail protecting his girlfriend, country music singer Alexis Wilkins, to drive her inebriated friend home. The story, written by star MS NOW reporters Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian, relies on three anonymous sources and states that the allegations have “spread through the bureau and beyond” and that agents have “grown increasingly concerned by Patel’s use of the bureau’s strapped resources.”

A spokesman for the FBI, Ben Williamson, denied the story, writing on X, “1,000% false and did not happen. And I’d like to give some BTS insight into how this hogwash got printed.”

“I got this allegation on Tuesday. It sounded made up and I told the reporter so. I went and checked with everyone involved – Alexis (who doesn’t even drink), the Director, the Detail, and more – all of whom said it didn’t happen. Couldn’t find any corroboration or record of it whatsoever,” he said. 

Mr. Williamson added that he informed MS NOW that “everyone involved” told him the story is false and asked for “any other” information, such as the name of the friend or dates when the incidents allegedly occurred, so that he could provide “proof” the story was wrong. 

However, Mr. Williamson said he was told, “We do not have that info but are comfortable with our sourcing.”

MS NOW noted in its story that Mr. Williamson “broadly disputed that such events took place.”

The Trump Administration’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, a confidant of President Trump who was his ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence in the first Trump term, wrote on X that “it’s time @NBCNews executives step in and do something.”

He appears to have overlooked that MS NOW was recently spun off from  NBCUniversal as part of a new company, Versant, made up of Comcast’s discarded cable networks, which were dragging down the stock price.

A conservative strategist, Erica Knight, wrote, “Not being chosen as ‘media offender of the week’ must’ve hurt. They handled it the only way they know how: by making up a story so fake it should’ve opened with ‘Once upon a time…’”

“Everyone involved denied this happened. You wouldn’t even supply the date, so they could produce evidence it didn’t happen. She doesn’t even drink. You people are disgusting,” another user said.

Another person suggested, “File a defamation lawsuit.”

“Wow. You need to start suing and bankrupting these outlets that are defaming. They are swaying public opinion by printing defamatory lies. Many will not see your rebuttal – they will only see the lies,” another user said. 

Without information such as dates when the agents were allegedly directed to drive the friend home or the name of the friend, it would be difficult to thoroughly debunk the story by providing records or testimony from those reportedly involved to prove the story is false.

Mr. Grenell’s frustrated exhortation to NBC News management to do something about MS NOW reflects a growing frustration within the conservative movement about news reports in establishment liberal outlets making damaging, unverifiable claims about conservatives, citing anonymous sources. 

The Trump Administration has been rocked by another report that relied on two anonymous sources, published late last month, from the Washington Post, which said that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a “spoken directive” to “kill everybody” on a boat in the Caribbean that was allegedly carrying drugs. The article said that Mr. Hegseth ordered the military to ensure there were no survivors, which led officials to order a second strike to kill survivors who were clinging to the ship. 

The allegations in the article were very serious and described conduct that could be considered a war crime under American law. They also came at a time when liberal outlets, especially the Washington Post, were attacking Mr. Hegseth with a barrage of anonymously sourced reports, such as a September Washington Post piece about Mr. Hegseth summoning all his generals back to the Washington area for unspecified reasons. The gathering turned out to be a simple meeting to invoke the warrior ethos among the military’s top commanders.

Regarding the Washington Post’s boat strike story, a Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, told the Post that the “entire narrative is completely false.” Nevertheless, the Post stood by its story.

Days later, the Washington Post remained alone in its accounting that Mr. Hegseth gave the verbal order to kill the surviving men. Even mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times  poked large holes allegation that Mr. Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody.” On December 1, the Times reported that two American officials said the secretary “had briefed Special Operations Forces commanders on his execute order to engage the boat with lethal force.” However, his order “did not address what should happen if people survived the first strike.” 

The officials also stated that Mr. Hegseth “made no oral directive at the meeting that went beyond the written order.” The Times noted that the Post’s article did not “provide context on when Mr. Hegseth gave what its sources described as a spoken order to kill everyone.”

The Post’s initial story did not say when the order was allegedly given, but on Thursday, the paper said the directive was “issued before the operation’s initial strike,” and not after it became evident that there were survivors.

On Thursday, the Navy admiral, Frank Bradley, told lawmakers that Mr. Hegseth did not give an order to “kill them all.”

MS NOW did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.