COMMENTARY As most Americans will have heard by now (perhaps as many as 167 times), FBI Director James Comey released a letter on Friday noting that the agency had located emails that might have something to do with his closed investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Given the climate of hysterical insinuation that hovers above Hillary Clinton at all times — a climate created by political opponents and cable stars desperate to gin up her bureaucratic blunderings into capital offenses — you might assume that a guy like Comey, with a paid staff of thousands, would actually take the time to have these emails examined, and to figure out if they include any damning information about Clinton, before releasing such a vague letter. Because think about it: we’re barely a week from the election. If these emails do include info that would lead him to reopen his investigation of Clinton, then the public should know that. And if they don’t include anything that would lead him to reopen that investigation, there is no justification for making this investigative fishing expedition public.

Is there a single person in America who can explain why Clinton’s use of a private email server is criminal? Seriously. Can you?

Instead, Comey has taken a third path. He is conducting himself like a Fox News anchor. I mean by this that he is throwing out the possibility of wrongdoing with absolutely no evidence. Which is what the media has been doing to Hillary Clinton for her entire public life. It’s the reason so many Americans say they don’t trust her. Not because she’s done anything wrong. But because she’s been accused of doing so many things wrong. Not one of these fake scandals — from Whitewater to Benghazi to her emails — has panned out. There’s been no proof that Clinton did anything illegal or even unethical in most cases. It’s just been one long, blaring, baseless, paranoid Republican fever dream. FBI Director James Comey pictured on July 5, 2016 at FBI Headquarters in Washington. (Cliff Owen/AP) You’d think that, after 30 years of serving up these nothing burgers, the self-respecting members of the Fourth Estate might finally grow a conscience and stop trafficking in conspiracy theories. Heck, at this stage in the campaign, they might even talk about the candidates’ policies and how those policies would affect the future of our democracy. Aw, but that’s stuff’s too boring! Especially when they’ve got an election to sell, one that was getting pretty lopsided, thanks to one candidate being a proudly ignorant bigot, with a side career in sexual predation. The anchors needed another “October surprise” to gin up the action. After all, a fake scandal serves the essential purpose of our corporate media, which isn’t to inform or enlighten the electorate, to but to inflame them. So here’s your headline heading into the homestretch, America: Clinton Mishandles E-mails. Trump Manhandles Women. You Decide. How pathetic. How pathetic that we have to watch videos of Trump and his minions crowing about this. Could Trump even explain what Clinton supposedly did wrong and how it endangered Americans? Heck, could you? Is there a single person in America who can explain why Clinton’s use of a private email server is criminal? Seriously. Can you?

So here’s your headline heading into the homestretch, America: Clinton Mishandles E-mails. Trump Manhandles Women. You Decide.