Dizzying transitions from tin-hat conspiracy theories to the New Real

The disrepute of the media and the distrust of the media by the public is a sorry condition in our Republic. We need a better media that is more capable and more trustworthy.

It is certainly true that journalists can be quite biased and have a different worldview than your average American. That said, sometimes journalists are victims of a high velocity news cycle.

From Thursday, October 19th, Donald Trump just suggested the FBI, Democrats and Russia might all be co-conspirators by Chris Cillizza. Cillizza's take is that Trump is an idiot and dangerous for trafficking in such ridiculous conspiracy theories.

On Tuesday, October 24th, the Washington Post publishes Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier by Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind S. Helderman. The Post's report is that the Clinton campaign, the DNC, and the FBI all funded the collection of anti-Trump opposition research from the Russians.

From a post-election claim that Russia and Trump colluded to snatch the presidency from Clinton, this allegation has now morphed into a different monster: A US presidential candidate and her political party funded research from the Russians to defeat her political opponent. That research was then used by the allied administration (White House) to justify wiretapping Clinton's opponent's associates and then to launch a full bore investigation of the unsubstantiated allegation of collusion. At this point the evidence points to a shift from one pole to the other in terms of credible claims of collusion as documented by Mollie Hemingway on Wednesday, October 25th: Here Are The 10 Most Important Reported Claims About The Steele Dossier On Russia.

This approaches banana republic type shenanigans. The more "tin-hat" conspiracies theories turn out to be true, the more our national trust in one another is eroded. The easier it becomes to believe even crazier theories. We need an independent press which actually investigates the truth, regardless of their ideological or partisan biases.

Poor old Cillizza's head must be spinning.