ALI VELSHI (GUEST HOST): From the moment the news broke that several bombs had been mailed to prominent liberals who are all frequent targets of Donald Trump's heated rhetoric, the right wing in this country, the right wing media, began peddling a conspiracy theory that this attack was a false flag operation.



Now, that's a term with which you may not be familiar, but it refers to a hoax meant to misdirect attention -- in this case, that the bombs were sent by someone on the left in order to hurt Republicans.



...



MATT GERTZ: I think Alex Jones' conspiratorial poison is spreading through the right-wing media at this point. Conspiracy theories aren't new to the right, but the false flag nonsense used to be sort of cordoned off on the fringes, people like Alex Jones and his ilk. But since Donald Trump was elected, it's spreading further, obviously, as you can see.



The president was, you know -- became a major political figure by virtue of pushing a racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama, and that really opened up the floodgates.



...



GERTZ: We are in a media environment now that is very fractured, one in which people can go out and find exactly the news that suits their tastes, and often that news is steeped in conspiracy theories and paranoia.



And it's very difficult to reach those people.



You know, they're not tuning in tonight to find out what the facts are about this case. They're, you know, on Facebook. They're on Twitter. They're listening to the people that they were inclined to believe already. They're listening to the president.

Previously:



The far-right false flag narrative over the attempted bombings of Democrats was all over talk radio

Alex Jones: It’s a “real moment” that Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs are calling the migrant caravan a “false flag” just like I am



The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway: Pipe bombs were “threatening-looking as opposed to actual threats”



Rush Limbaugh reacts to arrest of bomber by pushing conspiracy theory that stickers on van don’t appear faded



Pro-Trump media push ridiculous conspiracy theories about the van of the alleged MAGA bomber