Another day, another fake news story – this time from one of the fake news all-stars, the New York Times.

In their never-ending quest to destroy Donald Trump's presidency and either drive him insane or goad his fair-weather fellow GOPers to impeach him, the misleading headline points the way.  "Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation."

Really?  The first paragraph reinforces the headline, saying Trump asked Comey "[t]o shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting."  One must read farther into the article to see that Trump asked nothing of the sort.

What memo?  The N.Y. Times reports "[a]ccording to two people who read the memo."  What happened to the "who, what, where, when and why" of proper journalism?  Nope.  Just "two people."  Beavis and Butt-Head?  Abbott and Costello?  Which two people?

Did the N.Y. Times reporters see the memo?  No, they did not, according to the article: "[t]he New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo."

Someone read them the memo.  All of it?  Not quite.  "One of Mr. Comey's associates read parts of it to a Times reporter."

This is journalism?  Sounds more like a group of pre-teens playing  telephone.

What did Trump supposedly say?  "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.  "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Let's be precise here.  Aside from Trump typically repeating things, which the Washington Post has written about, he said nothing about "ending the investigation."  Or to use a couple of speech habits of our last president, "let me be clear": Trump did not ask Comey to end the investigation.  "Make no mistake."

What investigation?  A month before the Trump-Comey meeting, the FBI "found nothing improper" when they spied on Flynn speaking with the Russian ambassador.  What's to let go?

Perhaps Trump was speaking of Comey and the larger Deep State's obsession with Russia supposedly hacking the election, with Flynn being a sideshow to the larger story of mythical Trump-Russia collusion.  Was Trump telling them to "let this go" so he and Congress could press forward with their policies and agenda without the daily fake news broadsides from big media?

Psychology Today describes "Let it go!" as a form of psychotherapy.  They explain getting stuck in a psychological rut: "[p]ast hurts and old injustices have a way of keeping us stuck in our tracks, unable to move forward or experience joy. It can take a radical reboot to get past yesterday."

That is a perfect description of the media, who can't get past the fact that their favored candidate didn't win in an electoral landslide, despite their predictions and assurances.  Why, an inexperienced hack, an uncouth pig from the sleazy real estate and reality TV world, stole the election from the candidate who deserved the presidency, who was entitled to win based on her liberal pedigree and credentials!  A stolen election.  Just like Bush versus Gore in 2000.  "Past hurts and old injustices."

Who else is stuck?  Republicans, particularly the #NeverTrump variety.  Despite controlling both Houses of Congress and the White House, congressional Republicans are glum.  They should be joyful, yet they are not.  They cannot move forward with their long promised agenda – Obamacare repeal, tax cuts, and so on.  As the psychologists say, "unable to move forward or experience joy."

The Psychology Today article goes farther, speaking specifically to James Comey.  "Perhaps you're stuck in place by the unhappy residue of your own bad choices – the job you should have left earlier."  Bingo.  Comey was put in an impossible no-win situation by Barack Obama and Loretta Lynch.  Rather than twisting himself into legal and ethical pretzels, he should have left his job.  He should have "let it go."

Letting go "[m]eans challenging irrational, unproductive thinking until you get your head on straight."  And "[i]t means confronting your passionate attachment to a past love."

Spot on.  Irrational and unproductive thinking from the left.  Unable to release their past love, whether Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Barack Obama.

What if President Trump was sending a message to the FBI director and his colleagues in the Deep State to "let go" of the nonsensical Russian hacking and collusion obsession?  To move on to the business of running the country, making America great again – what Americans voted for last November?

It would be good advice to Comey, the media, Democrats, #NeverTrumps, and the Deep State bureaucrats.  How do the reporters at the N.Y. Times know that that is not precisely what Trump was telling Comey?  They don't.  They don't have the supposed memo and were read only portions of it – likely out of context.

Maybe Trump was simply channeling singer Dave Mason: "Let it go.  Let it flow live a river.  Let it go.  Let it flow through you."  The only thing flowing these days is fake news.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer.  Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.