I accept that this is naïve, so please don’t write to me and tell me that I need to understand that the media is irreparably biased — trust me, I know — but I sincerely, honestly, genuinely do not understand how any of the people who continued to peddle the Trump-Russia nonsense long after it was obvious that it wasn’t true can expect to be taken seriously ever again.
New York’s Jonathan Chait wrote this elongated suicide note in the summer of 2018. “The media has treated the notion that Russia has personally compromised the president of the United States as something close to a kook theory,” Chait complained, in a piece titled, “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?” Er, yeah, it has. As opposed to what? Here’s one of the Pepe Silvia–esque charts Chait made in support of his theory:
David Frum was insisting emphatically on TV and in the Atlantic that the theory “wasn’t a hoax” in December of 2021 — ten months after Joe Biden had taken office.
Rachel Maddow made a career out of spreading lunatic conspiracy theories on MSNBC, as did Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace (who is still, today, rejecting all evidence that contradicts her fever dream).
Adam Schiff lied relentlessly from his official perch on the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is now gearing up to run for the Senate.
I could go on and on. Certainly, it gets boring saying as much, but if any of these people weren’t fully approved of by the Borg, they’d never be able to write or do anything again without being reminded at every turn that they’d fatally beclowned themselves and ought to go away.