National Conspiracy Adviser

It's not hard to see why Michael Flynn got the boot from President Obama.

The retired three-star U.S. Army general and his 33-year-old son — who serves as his father’s chief of staff — have used their social media accounts to promote numerous baseless claims, including that members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign were implicated in a child prostitution ring. 

And the harm in that is:

An entire D.C. neighborhood was on lockdown Sunday because some dope with a gun believed a fake news story that wildly and wrongly linked a neighborhood pizzeria to a child sex ring.

And yes, his son is in the administration. too. And is just as nutty. 

Those who run our social-media companies and Internet search engines need to find a way to help a gullible country differentiate between fake news and real news. Let’s make America believe in facts again.

That would be great. Let's at least do it for the consumers of news who are going to be working in the White House.

Dana Milbank also writes about the shooting and the harm from fake news.

This would appear to be the new normal: Not only disagreeing with your opponent but accusing her of running a pedophilia ring, provoking such fury that somebody takes it upon himself to start shooting. Not only chafing when criticized in the press but stoking anti-media hysteria that leads some supporters to threaten to kill journalists.

After The Washington Post reported Sunday about the Comet gunman and the nonsense conspiracy theory that motivated him, the reporters received emails and tweets saying “I hope the next shooter targets you lying sacks of s--- in the media,” “God has a plan better than death,” and “it would also be a shame if someone took a gun to” The Post. 

News for gullible idiots: