Karen expressed appropriate skepticism about the story that Biden defenders were pushing that Trump ignored 3 incidents of Chinese spy balloons crossing the United States.

Biden partisans pushed the story hard, claiming that Slow Joe was Maverick from Top Gun, while Trump meekly took it when China did the same thing during his administration.

The story appeared in the MSM, of course, and Biden toadies were all over Twitter with posts like these endlessly repeated:

China Balloon Scoreboard:
Biden: 1-0
Trump: 0-3 https://t.co/rg93gxZsry

— Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) February 5, 2023

For those keeping score at home:

Chinese Spy Balloons 3, Trump 0

Biden 1, Chinese Spy Balloon 0

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) February 5, 2023

Of course, we all knew the story would turn out to be a fabrication, and indeed it is. The goal was to implant the idea in people’s heads that Biden was a strong leader, even stronger than Trump. More importantly, it muddied the waters.

Now that the idea is out there, the story is starting to change. Not a little, but a lot.

Wow their lie is changing

Now they’re saying they didn’t “discover” the Chinese spy balloons until *after* Trump left office and won’t disclose how they know that

They’re also saying the balloons flew *near* Texas and Florida (not over)

Convenient!https://t.co/qp4bcXGCzM

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) February 6, 2023

After the Biden administration disclosed last week that a suspected Chinese spy balloon was hovering over Montana, the Pentagon said that similar balloon incidents had occurred during the Trump administration. In response, former Trump administration Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN on Friday that he was “surprised” by that statement.

“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump also said on Truth Social this week that reports of Chinese balloons transiting the US during his administration were “fake disinformation.”

The Biden administration official now says the incidents were not discovered until after the Trump administration had already left. But the official did not say how those incidents were discovered or when.

CNN reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had briefed Congress of previous Chinese surveillance balloons during the Trump administration that flew near Texas and Florida.

So…the Biden Administration “discovered” these balloons ex post facto, they came “near” the United States, and has now briefed Congress on the incidents. They refuse to reveal how they knew or explain how the balloon that crossed the United States was clearly visible to the naked eye this time, but never in the past.

One would think that there would have been a murmur about the event if it happened.

Sound plausible? Not to me. Sounds like a complete invention. The Pentagon didn’t even notice this balloon until it was in Canada, suggesting they dropped the ball.

So instead of the original story–that Biden exhibited his military bona fides by shooting the balloon out of the sky after its mission was complete, while Trump was a total wimp–we have this very weak tea of hypothetical balloons that didn’t cross into US airspace and that weren’t discovered until Slow Joe perused satellite photos himself while doing CrossFit and target shooting simultaneously.

This is how misinformation is done. Get blaring headlines with the story you want, and after those have sunk in for a few days start dribbling out less implausible stories.

Anybody paying close attention knew the original fake news story was complete BS, but we aren’t the target audience. It was average people who were pissed off about Biden’s weakness; the idea was to muddy the waters, and by the time everything is sorted out the original passion is gone.

The MSM should have known–probably did know–that the Biden folks were lying. They just didn’t care. Pushing “leaks” from “insiders” is easy, and requires no fact-checking. The story is basically “somebody said…” and they have a fake scoop.

If the media had any integrity they should reveal the names of the liars when the truth comes out. Instead, they encourage government officials to lie, reward them with fake stories, and impose no cost for lying. Rinse, repeat.

Honest reporters would only reward honest leakers. It should be part of the deal. If you are lying, it will be exposed.