Former MSNBC star Krystal Ball admits that regarding the Russia Collusion Hoax, her former employer engaged in irresponsible “conspiracy theorizing” and that the network’s overall coverage of President Trump “has done real damage to the left.”

Ball, a far-leftist, appeared on Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and the host asked her if she believes “networks like MSNBC, which [she] used to work for, help or hurt progressive causes.”

“Overall,” she replied, “I think MSNBC in the Trump era has done real damage to the left”:

Emphasis added:

BALL: And I say that with love. I mean, these are my former colleagues, friends. Look, the Russia story and what happened there was important, but it was not all-important, and they went so far in the realm of conspiracy theorizing. I mean, they had Jonathan Chait on…

MAHER: Well, it was a conspiracy.

BALL: They had Jonathan Chait on to talk about how Trump may have been a Russian plant since 1987. This is ridiculous, okay? This is way out from what journalistic facts said, and it’s to the exclusion of other stories that people actually care about – about health care, about trade, about the future of their lives, automation. These things are real, and they don’t get focus when you only look at one thing. So, yeah, they built up expectations so much that when the report came out, people were like, “Oh, it was no big deal,” when it was a big deal.

Maher then admitted it “was the mistake on MSNBC making [Robert Mueller] into this hero,” which is what all the media did, not just MSNBC.

But the good news is that MSNBC is paying a very heavy price for disappointing its viewers, for conning people like Ball and Maher, for assuring and reassuring them Trump would be impeached and jailed as a Russian spy.

MSNBC knew it was all a hoax, but the ratings were just too good not to double, triple, and quadruple down on. The sugar high of all those stupid BREAKING STORIES, all that fake news that proved Trump colluded with Russia, was much too addicting not to keep reaching for bigger and bigger highs.

But after the Mueller Report proved Trump did not collude with Russia and did not obstruct justice, after Robert Mueller himself appeared before Congress and proved he had no idea what was going on in his own investigation, proved he let his crazy Trump-hating subordinates run with it, the whole thing came apart and so did MSNBC’s ratings.

Of course, the Russia Collusion Hoax did allow Democrats and the establishment media to keep the dream alive that Trump could be defeated, could be removed from office, and that dream remains alive now that the 2020 race has already begun, but the media no longer have the power to defeat Trump. The public has tuned the media out. Trump will be reelected or not based on the condition of the economy and his own behavior, not a Russia hoax and not the latest round of fake news “bombshells” we have been subjected to over the past week.

Look at these numbers: 95 percent of Americans are troubled by the state of the media in a country where you could not get 95 percent of the public to agree the sky is blue and water is wet.

The media are now in a position where no one pays attention to them, much less takes them seriously.

Trump is in charge of his own destiny. That doesn’t mean he will win a second term; it just means the media have fake-news’d themselves into white noise.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.