Pundits and news readers who would have agreed that they didn't take the Washington Times seriously would end up parroting their spin points (at least in the form of "Questions are being asked about..."), no doubt without even knowing their origins.
I've observed the same thing over here with papers like
The Sun (
Murdoch) and
The Daily Mail (
Rothermere). Unless my attitude to the veracity of the stories and the wisdom of the opinions I read in my newspaper is profound skepticism, then I do take it seriously.