Not surprising to anyone who frequents WP, NYT, FOX, or any other modern news outlet, as op-ed's have overtaken fact based reporting.
The lack of critical skills from the public is one factor but the other are news outlets pumping 10 hours of op-ed's and 13 hours of "allegedly" or "sources say" per day and only 1 hour of actual fact based reporting.
This is why I trust Reuters and the AP, which don't rely on op-eds, above all others that do.