Today in framing

The evening's No. 2 story at the Fair 'n' Balanced Network:

No documents related to the hacks of the Democratic National Committee emails or Clinton campaign Chair John Podesta’s emails appear to be altered or forged, according to a declassified U.S. intelligence report on alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election released Friday.

Stop press! We'd been waiting to hear those crucial details about the long-awaited intelligence report on ... what's that, grownup news organizations everywhere?

Oh, the Putin bit. Well, Fox is getting to that:

While the report accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering a campaign to influence the U.S. election and hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, it found that the material sent to WikiLeaks did not contain “any evident forgeries.”

That's a relief. I mean, who would have thought ...

The claim that the emails may have been doctored or forged was raised by DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile in October, when she was criticized for an email that surfaced in hacked messages from Podesta’s account.

The report also concluded that Moscow chose WikiLeaks to distribute the information “because of its self-proclaimed reputation for authenticity.”

While the report does not specifically mention Podesta’s emails, it does say Russian intelligence agencies relayed material to WikiLeaks “from the DNC and senior Democratic officials.” Podesta was the most prominent Democratic official to be subject to a cyberattack during the campaign.

Which makes perfect sense if you're the sort of (ahem) viewer whose lead story in late October looked like this:

Because why would you care what the Russians did? Your big story is that CROOKID HILLARY got a boost from the communist media, and it was all rigged against Trump after all. Donna is a household name for you, because Valerie and Huma and Blumenthal are household names for you, and now they've been caught:
The Brazile email passed on a question to campaign adviser Jennifer Palmieri about the death penalty, under the subject line: “From time to time I get questions in advance.”

The exchange came right before a March town hall hosted by CNN and TV One, where a similar question was asked. Yet Brazile denied receiving questions from CNN, and implies that the emails released were doctored.

Got her at last!

After all, as Richard Hofstadter put it, "History is a conspiracy, set in motion by demonic forces of almost transcendent power":

I mean, who cares about Putin when your side has taken down the real Evil Empire?