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Mueller issues indictments and the right-wing bubble tries to soften the blow

Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted Trump associates Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and revealed that George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians.

As the news broke, Fox & Friends immediately tried to downplay the story, instead talking about stories like Google's difficulty finding the right cheeseburger emoji. Fox News and Trump tried to lie about the scope of Manafort's allegedly illegal activity, but the first page of the indictment shows that it continued through the election year.

While some on the Fox "news" side ran with this distortion, Fox News anchor Shep Smith underlined this fact later in the week. In fact, there were so many ridiculous moments on Fox News that Fox employees spoke out about how embarrassed they were by the coverage.

Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity both dismissed the indictments. Hannity's disinterest is particularly hypocritical since he was very excited during the campaign for Russia to release illicit dirt that would help Trump win.

Pro-Trump network OANN (which Trump tweeted about recently) accused Obama advisers of launching a coup. The entire right-wing media reaction proves that its primary function is to serve as an alternative reality bubble.

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