This is what it looks like to turn pushing a narrative into an extreme sport.

In the past few days, we received the big revelation (which all of us able to think critically already knew for years) that the FBI did indeed spy on the Trump campaign. They sent a “covert agent” to set what looks like a honey trap for George Papadopoulos. This was one of several spies run against the Trump campaign. The New York Times got out ahead of what’s likely going to be a damaging IG report by printing a sanitized confession from FBI sources. The purpose of that obviously being to shape the idea that it was justified.

You see, Trump was just so darn evil and connected with Russia (spoiler: he wasn’t) that the FBI had to take the unprecedented approach of spying on his campaign. Never mind that there appears to be no actual evidence to back up their actions and verified evidence is a requirement for targeting U.S. citizens as they did.

In the aftermath of all this, the media are still losing their minds over the word “spy” being used, namely by AG Bill Barr. This despite the fact that they used the term spying repeatedly to attack the Bush administration’s approved use of surveillance.

The New York Times is so desperate not to give Trump the win on his campaign being spied on that they are now going with his hilarious new term instead.

Today's @nytimes reminds me of that classic James Bond film, "The Cloaked Investigator Who Loved Me." #Spygate pic.twitter.com/p1fXSneYuo

— Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) May 3, 2019

A “cloaked investigator?” Has that phrase ever been used in the course of human history?

The internet had some fun with the stupidity of it all.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1124417645313503232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1124417645313503232&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fdougp-3137%2F2019%2F05%2F04%2Flmao-ny-times-headline-that-bent-over-backwards-to-avoid-saying-spy-gets-the-mocking-it-so-richly-deserves%2F

I also love "Austin Powers: The Cloaked Investigator Who Shagged Me." https://t.co/xNxHYOXetd

— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) May 3, 2019

In all seriousness, this is absurd.

The media have spent the past two years insisting it was a “crazy conspiracy theory” to point out that the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. Even as evidence started to pile up pointing to that, they remained obtuse, insisting that only whacked out Trump supporters would say such a thing. Heck, less than a month ago CNN ran with a headline asserting that Barr’s charge of spying was backed by “no evidence.”

Now, we finally get a direct confession from the FBI and instead of admitting they were wrong, the media want to play 1984-style word games and pretend that “cloaked investigator” is a more accurate term than just saying spy. It’s laughable.

You can sense the panic, whether it’s in the mainstream media or in the statements from Democrats attacking Barr. They see the walls closing in and know the coming IG report is going to be a brutal rebuke of everything they’ve pushed up until this point. The flailing and excuse making we are now seeing is a desperate attempt to muddy the waters. I don’t think they are going to be able to hide from what’s coming, though.