Leading journalists make fun of conspiracy theorists who insist they’re all “paid Hillary shills”

The pattern never fails for journalists: if you write anything positive or even non-negative about Hillary Clinton, even if it’s something as basic and factual as pointing out that she won a state that she won, the paranoid conspiracy theorists across the internet will rise up out of their cauldrons and accuse you of being a “paid Hillary shill.” The implication, of course, is that no one could possibly be inclined to report positive things about Clinton unless they were being paid to do so. Today a number of prominent journalists from various major publications came together to make fun of such lunatic accusations.

After a hapless conspiracy theorist tweeted CBS News political analyst Jamelle Bouie with the familiar and now-tired accusation of “Are you getting paid by the Clinton campaign,” she sarcastically fired back with “I just cashed my check this afternoon.” That led Nate Cohn of the New York Times to get in on the action, tweeting that “I was given half of my payment before she announced, the other half to be received once she clinches.” Finally, Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight tweeted “I get my checks on Wednesdays.”

The round of jokes came squarely at the expense of the paranoid anti-Hillary fanatics who appear to honestly believe that the entire world is one big conspiracy for her, or against them. These are the same loons who like to falsely accuse our publication Daily News Bin of being “secretly owned” (false) or “secretly funded” (also false) by the Hillary campaign on a daily basis. Now that our detractors are throwing the same insane false accusations at the likes of CBS and the New York Times, we feel we’re in good company.