By now, anyone with a political pulse knows that special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry has reached its conclusion. On March 24, Axios
headlined, "Mueller investigation finds no Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia." Later that night, CNN's
Chris Cillizza dampened Democratic hopes by stating flatly, "Collusion is now off the board." And the inimitable President Donald Trump declared in a
tweet, "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION."
To be sure, Mueller found
plenty of wrongdoing by Trumpians and Russians. He did, after all, issue 34 indictments and secure seven convictions, with one trial (that of Roger Stone) still to come.
For its part, the loyal but hostile opposition is not giving up. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler
tweeted, "Mueller did not exonerate the President." Nadler wants to haul in Attorney General Bill Barr for a little heart-to-heart on Capitol Hill-with 200 TV cameras watching.
Still, no sound and fury is going to change the headline atop
The Washington Post on Monday morning:
"Mueller finds no conspiracy."
Without a doubt, the mainstream media, which was so breathless in its pursuit of "Russiagate," has now had the wind knocked out of it. And in the meantime, other journalistic figures and outlets, further to the left and also to the right, have the wind at their backs. As
The New York Times' lone conservative opinionator
Ross Douthat observed, Sunday was a good day for such ideologically disparate critics of the media as The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald, the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross, and The Federalist in toto.
Comment: Thanks to the integrity of journalist like Eva Bartlett, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate and others, the truth about Venezuela can be known.