An unvetted story gets treated as being completely true and unbiased. A biased internet site picks it up creating a 2nd source. A third "journalist," accepts the premise of the newspaper report and the internet story without verification and boom, you have a completely unverified and biased story hitting the web as if it were completely true.
Such is the state of journalism today. Nobody knows what went down and why but the narrative painting ND, and of course Swarbirck, as bad bad actors who are screwing some schmuck is making the rounds as gospel.