Axios co-founders Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei blasted mainstream media outlets Tuesday for obsessing over former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg and his disastrous Monday media tour, noting that such an obsession is “one of the reasons America hates the media.”

Nunberg made the media rounds after special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed him to testify before a grand jury. Initially declaring he would defy Mueller’s subpoena, the defiant Nunberg said, “Let him arrest me,” during an interview with The Washington Post.

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But Nunberg later retracted his claims and said he would cooperate fully with Mueller’s investigation.

“Here’s what it was: A sad, epic meltdown — a troubled Trump flunky, pecked at and picked apart like roadkill on the Russia Interstate, in his last gasps of public fame and shame,” Allen and VandeHei wrote in a piece called “Awful scandal porn: Nunberg gone wild.”

Media outlets devoured Nunberg’s wild claims and lavished him with attention throughout Monday. He waved his subpoena around in front of MSNBC’s Ari Melber on air. He told MSNBC, “I think it would be really, really funny if they wanted to arrest me because I don’t want to spend 80 hours going over emails I had with Steve Bannon and Roger Stone.”

But everything culminated in a painfully awkward interview when CNN’s Erin Burnett asked him if he had been drinking.

“We talked earlier about what people in the White House were saying about you ― talking about whether you were drinking or on drugs or whatever had happened today,” Burnett said. “Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath … I know it’s awkward.”

Nunberg denied drinking, saying he had taken nothing “besides my meds — antidepressants. Is that OK?”

But by the time Tuesday morning rolled around, Nunberg was nowhere to be seen on the news shows.

Fox Business Network’s Charles Gasparino tweeted Tuesday morning, “Just spoke w @NunbergSam he told me he’s fully cooperating now w Mueller’s team and he’s intending to go get treatment following his grand jury appearance on Friday.”

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Axios noted that Nunberg “contradicted every piece of news he made, telling AP last night: ‘I’m going to end up cooperating with them.'”

“Why it matters: This is one of the reasons America hates the media,” Allen and VandeHei wrote. “Our entire industry lit itself on fire because a troubled Trump hanger-on made an a** of himself — live.”

Axios spoke with an unnamed friend of Nunberg’s who accused news anchors of “knowingly taking advantage of an obviously fragile man.”

“The friend, who refused to be named but interacts constantly with journalists, texted an anchor during a live interview: ‘What the hell is wrong with you people? … Shame on you. This isn’t news,'” Axios wrote.

After the Nunberg craziness began to wear off, other media members engaged in some introspection about the appropriateness of the Nunberg craze.

Related: Stone Distances Himself from Former Trump Aide Nunberg’s ‘Car Crash’

CNN’s Brian Stelter asked in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter where the lines should be drawn when reporters and anchors consider a source’s or guest’s fitness for television.

“Now an ethical debate is raging in journalism circles. If your source seems drunk or drugged or just plain out of his mind, what is your responsibility?” Stelter asked. “Where’s the line in a breaking news situation like this?”

Although the co-founders of Axios ripped the media for obsessing over Nunberg and his contribution to the Trump-Russia hysteria, Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts noted on Twitter Tuesday, “It should be pointed out that @axios started this whole ball rolling by publishing the contents of Nunberg’s subpoena … ”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.