Nothing burger? No, pretext

This story in the New York Post gets something wrong and it illustrates the problem conservatives have in framing the Russia-gate story. The Post states that the collusion story was a "nothing burger" but kept the story alive anyway. This frames the escapade as a well intentioned endeavor that was kept alive perhaps by mistake, but with good intentions. 

It was, in fact, a malicious endeavor that was kept alive through an excess of enthusiasm. It was not a 'nothing burger', it was a deliberate fabrication. The FBI didn't become aware of it, it started it. The FBI were not bunglers, they were manipulators.  It is like saying the Watergate burglars just found themselves in the Democratic National Head quarters and, finding themselves there, decided to leave a listening device. The FBI started with the intention of destroying Trump and looked for a means and a means was found. 'Nothing burger' turns the criminal conspiracy into a case of credulity over indulged. 

"Nothing burger" refers to something that looks like something from the outside but, upon closer examination, reveals itself to be of no significance. But if the nothing burger of the Russia hoax ever appeared to be something it is only because of the FBI's manipulations (and the Press' receptivity to those manipulations). 

The con man doesn't fall for his own cover story. He knows it is a story. So did the FBI.