When a ‘conspiracy theory’ turns out to be…not a theory | Washington Examiner

Konnech came under scrutiny this year by several election deniers, including a founder of True the Vote, a nonprofit that says it is devoted to uncovering election fraud. True the Vote said its team had downloaded personal information on 1.8 million American poll workers from a server owned by Konnech and hosted in China. It said it obtained the data by using the server’s default password, which it said was ‘password.’ … The group provided no evidence that it had downloaded the data, saying that it had given the information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Konnech denied all wrongdoing. Yes, it owned a subsidiary in China, it conceded, but there have been no data breaches. Konnech actually sued True the Vote for defamation and for stealing its data. And now, Konnech’s founder and top executive is charged with doing what True the Vote said the company was doing.

In a statement, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon stressed that Konnech’s alleged crimes did not affect any election results. “The alleged conduct had no impact on the tabulation of votes and did not alter election results,” Gascon said. “But security in all aspects of any election is essential so that we all have full faith in the integrity of the election process.”

We’ll see how the case progresses. But for the moment, look at it as a media story. Why does the New York Times appear so gullible in this matter? Why was it not more skeptical of Konnech’s claims? Why did it not at least signal to the reader that all might not be as it seemed? Probably because the first Konnech story, the Monday story, appeared intended, more than anything, to knock down those “conspiracy theorists” and “election deniers” who are the bad guys in the play. The New York Times appears to have shifted into reflexive, us vs. them, mode in an effort to defend the result of the 2020 election.

But here’s the thing: It is possible to believe that the 2020 election result, Joe Biden’s victory, was legitimate and also believe that there were problems in a variety of areas of the election. After all, it was an unprecedented election. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers and local officials around the country rushed huge, never-before-attempted changes in election procedures into effect for the voting. How could there not be problems? Indeed, we are still dealing with the after-effects of those changes, undoing some and reforming others.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Maybe a conspiracy theory is just a theory, like anything else, that is awaiting confirmation. Maybe it’s time to take the stigma out of conspiracy theory.