When news leaked about former First Lady Hillary Clinton’s fresh round of e-mail scandals, the press went into a feeding frenzy, particularly the more conservative networks. On FOX News, Bret Baier reported that he had FBI sources confirm that an indictment was likely to happen because of the new e-mails that had been found. Before long, the news had spread like wildfire through social media that Clinton was in imminent danger of being arrested due to incriminating evidence found in those e-mails.
However, this was sloppy and misleading reporting. At the time of the FBI announcement, director James Comey had not even looked at those e-mails yet, so he had no idea what the nature of the content was. All he had to offer was speculation.
There has been plenty of that to go around online, but so far, there is no hard and fast evidence that has been presented that would guarantee an indictment, especially so close to an election.
This story is yet another cautionary tale about the tendency of the media to manipulate the news through the use of sensational stories and editorializing. If there is one thing that this election has begun to teach the American populace, it is that the truth as received via the news is filtered through a very particular lens. If you want the real story, you need to be prepared to do a little research of your own.