Complex sentence: In addition, I noticed that popular news outlets such as CNN and NYT were often cited as having the source material, but after clicking on some of those links, I noticed that even those article didn't have a directly link to the primary source material.
Split into simpler sentences: In addition, I noticed that popular news outlets, such as CNN and The NYT, were often cited as sources. After clicking on some of those links, I noticed that even the CNN/NYT source articles didn't have a citation or a direct link to the primary source material.