The folks at CNN and MSNBC are working overtime to splash cold water all over the startling disclosure that President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, was behind the “unmasking” of Trumpites in transcripts of calls with Russian officials.

“Another fake scandal being peddled by right-wing media” is what CNN anchor Chris Cuomo (brother of New York’s Democratic governor) called it.

National security correspondent Jim Sciutto (who joined the network straight from the Obama administration) labeled it “a ginned-up scandal” and President Trump’s “latest attempt” to “divert attention from his team’s contacts with Russia.”

Over at the even harder-left MSNBC, anchor Chris Matthews and analyst David Corn tried to outdo each other in implying base motives for the Rice coverage. “Notice it’s always a female” who’s attacked by conservatives, snarked Matthews. Added Corn: “Maybe because she’s a black woman.”

Or maybe it’s not sexism or racism, but the fact that Rice — with her clear history of dishonest public statements — has totally altered her story.

Two weeks ago, she insisted she knew “nothing about this” and was “surprised to see reports” about unmasked information.

Now, in a friendly interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, she denies unmasking anyone’s identity “for any political purposes” — which basically confirms that her claim to know nothing about unmasking was far from true. Moreover, published reports stressed that the transcripts “contained valuable political information.”

You can see why so many in the media want to discredit this story: They’ve been eagerly relaying leaked info from the transcripts that makes Trump & Co. look bad.

To acknowledge the clear political motive behind those leaks, and behind Rice’s “unmasking,” is to admit that Team Obama abused intelligence data — and that its media friends were complicit in doing so.