I was struck by the severity of the CNN headline: "Trump falsely claims 'millions of people who voted illegally' cost him popular vote."  They were calling him a liar.  They didn't even wait for the body of the article; they wanted people to know it in the headline.

The L.A. Times headline was identical.  (Hate minds think alike?)  The headlines of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico are almost identical, all calling Trump's claim "baseless" or "a conspiracy theory."  (Note that if you check the links now, the headlines may have changed slightly, as they sometimes do.)

Isn't it somewhat creepy when five supposedly independent news organizations run almost the exact same headline?  But what's worse is, they are basically calling Trump a liar in the headlines.  Have they treated the claims of any other political figure that way?  Did the Times talk about Hillary Clinton's "baseless claims" that she never received any classified emails?  When Obama said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," did any media outlet call that a "false claim"?  When Jill Stein suggests that Donald Trump didn't win the election, did the media dismiss that as "without evidence"?  No, that seems to apply only to Donald Trump.  So visceral is the media's hatred of him that they can't even wait to attack him in the body of the article.  They have to do it in the headline.

Is it obviously a false claim to say millions of illegals votes in the election?  In states like California, illegal immigrants are given driver's licenses and simultaneously encouraged to register to vote along with citizens.  We know that in a study of just nine counties in Virginia, more than 1,000 illegals were registered to vote.  Another study proved that illegal aliens actually voted in Philadelphia.  There are numerous other examples.

We cannot know if the vote of illegals and other voter fraud could have cost Donald Trump the popular vote, but to dismiss it out of hand, while giving a free pass to any and all claims of Democrats, gives the appearance of extreme partisanship.  And the use of substantially similar headlines by five leading news organizations gives the appearance of media collusion.

It makes you wonder why Donald Trump bothers to meet with the New York Times or to play nice with the liberal media.  They are trying to destroy him even before he becomes president.  I hope he follows Sean Hannity's advice and denies them press passes to the White House.  See how long their coverage stays overtly hostile when they are on the outside of the fence of the White House, looking in.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.