Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Richard Jewell” tells the true story of a heroic security guard wrongly accused of a 1996 bombing by the FBI and wrongly convicted by an out-of-control news media.

When left-wing critics previewed the movie, they were appalled.

“‘Richard Jewell’ is the Movie America Doesn’t Need Right Now,” was the headline on the review by Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bunch wrote: “At some point during those two hours in the dark – maybe the attack on the FBI as a rogue outfit using trickery to frame innocent people, or the depiction of journalists as amoral enemies of the people, or the swelling agitprop of applause lines about common folks under attack ‘from our two most powerful forces – the United States government and the media’ – that I’d began to wonder if I’d made a wrong turn. Was I really in a Philadelphia multiplex, or had I wound up at President Trump’s lie-larded Hershey rally taking place at exactly the same time?”

Likewise, left-wing outlet The Daily Beast said Eastwood’s movie “channels Trump talking points.”

But here’s my question. Since Trump is never mentioned in the movie, and since the movie only dramatizes a completely true story, what made these critics think of Donald Trump when they saw a man being unfairly abused by the FBI and the press? What on earth, pray tell, brought President the Donald into their squeaky clean minds?

Of course, we know the answer. As much as they deny it, distort it, and lie about it, the Department of Justice Inspector General report on the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s non-existent collusion with Russia absolutely destroys the work and credibility of Obama’s FBI leadership and the news media that reported on it. It’s the “Richard Jewell” story on steroids, and if the press didn’t know it, they wouldn’t protest so much.

Despite what virtually every left-wing commentator has said, the IG report is not a “Rorschach Test” that can be read two ways. It crucifies James Comey’s FBI – and not like Jesus was crucified, but like the thieves beside him who were “condemned justly.” The feds lied. They cheated. They wrongly spied on Americans. They wrongly spied on an opposition presidential campaign. And while IG Michael Horowitz makes plain it wasn’t his job to question their motives in doing so – and while he allows they had the “quantum” of justification required to open the investigation – he specifically comments on the low standards of that requirement, and then goes on to outline behavior so bad, he himself won’t try to explain the reasons behind it.

And in showing the FBI misused its mighty power, the report also underscores the dreadful, immoral, and dishonest behavior of the news media. The two and a half years of breathless Russia collusion reporting based on anonymous leaks from spies trying to cover their butts was, like the reporting on Richard Jewell, an unforgiveable disservice to the American people. No wonder “journalists” don’t want to see Eastwood’s movie. They are so steeped in ideological corruption, they can’t stand the sight of themselves.

Put Donald Trump aside for a moment, if that’s possible. Consider only this. George Stephanopoulos worked for Bill Clinton during the 1992 election. Part of his job was silencing and discrediting women who accused Clinton of rape and sexual abuse. You can see him in action in the documentary “War Room.” Stephanopoulos is now the chief newsman at ABC News. A whistleblower recently released video showing that ABC News spiked the story about Clinton friend and child rapist Jeffrey Epstein during Hillary Clinton’s campaign. When the video went public through Project Veritas, ABC started a hunt – not for the evildoer who spiked the story – but for the whistleblower! CBS helped ABC by firing a woman they wrongly thought guilty. And, of course, over at NBC, they did everything they could to kill the investigation into Clinton supporter and accused rapist Harvey Weinstein.

Our journalists cover up for probable rapists in order to protect powerful Democrats. Let me repeat that: our mainstream journalists cover up for probable rapists in order to protect powerful Democrats – and then they cover up the cover up.

That’s who they are. That’s what they do.

If I were they, I couldn’t look in the mirror either.