The phrase in the New York Times story hit a lot of readers - and a lot of journalists - like a slap across the face.
Major news organizations functioned during the 2016 presidential campaign as "a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence."
It was a harsh assessment of how Russian-hacked emails were turned into news stories, but one that certainly contained an element of truth.
Later, Times reporter Amy Chozick, in her book, "Chasing Hillary," mused on the eagerness for the revelations: "I can't explain it exactly except to compare it to a fever that spread through every newsroom and made us all salivate over the tiniest morsels," Chozick wrote.