A sign that you are completely full of it ought to be that NPR starts to heckle you.
Via NPR:
One of this week’s most-talked-about stories is The Daily Beast’s report that “the crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of several of the group’s affiliates throughout the region.”
Reporters Eli Lake and Josh Rogin wrote that they got that information from “three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence.” They added that “one U.S. intelligence official [said] more than 20 al Qaeda operatives were on the call.”
Other news outlets, including NPR, weren’t able to match that story. Quite the opposite, in fact. Stories about the Daily Beast scoop focused on how incredibly unlikely it seemed that 20 al-Qaida operatives would be communicating that way — given the likelihood that they would be listened in on.