Remember — the mainstream media and Big Tech can be trusted to tell us what we can discuss and debate, and what constitutes “conspiracy theories” and Wrongthink. Right? Right?

Old and busted, Paper of Record edition on Monday (via Twitchy):

At an invitation-only conference in August at a secret location southeast of Phoenix, a group of election deniers unspooled a new conspiracy theory about the 2020 presidential outcome.

Using threadbare evidence, or none at all, the group suggested that a small American election software company, Konnech, had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had given the Chinese government backdoor access to personal data about two million poll workers in the United States, according to online accounts from several people at the conference.

In the ensuing weeks, the conspiracy theory grew as it shot around the internet. To believers, the claims showed how China had gained near complete control of America’s elections. Some shared LinkedIn pages for Konnech employees who have Chinese backgrounds and sent threatening emails to the company and its chief executive, who was born in China.

New hotness by the same reporter, the very next day (emphases mine, and thanks to Mollie Hemingway):

WOW WOW WOWWWWWWWWWWWW.

I have never seen anything age this poorly, this quickly. By NYT's @stuartathompson

Also, could adults stop using the Democrat propaganda term "election denial" to describe people with legitimate challenges to election administration? It's so puerile. pic.twitter.com/YEcevYjhdI

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 5, 2022

The top executive of an elections technology company that has been the focus of attention among election deniers was arrested by Los Angeles County officials in connection with an investigation into the possible theft of personal information about poll workers, the county said on Tuesday.

Eugene Yu, the founder and chief executive of Konnech, the technology company, was taken into custody on suspicion of theft, the Los Angeles County district attorney, George Gascón, said in a statement.

Konnech, which is based in Michigan, develops software to manage election logistics, like scheduling poll workers. Los Angeles County is among its customers.

The company has been accused by groups challenging the validity of the 2020 presidential election with storing information about poll workers on servers in China. The company has repeatedly denied keeping data outside the United States, including in recent statements to The New York Times.

Mr. Gascón’s office said its investigators had found data stored in China. Holding the data there would violate Konnech’s contract with the county.

So much for “threadbare evidence,” eh? What makes this particularly amusing is that the DA pressing the charges is that famously right-wing conservative firebrand … George Gascón. Gascón, some will recall, is the DA elected with support from George Soros’ progressive-prosecutor project who just narrowly escaped a recall effort in Los Angeles for his hard-Left, soft-on-crime policies.

And so much for journalism, too. Rather than delving into the allegations being made by critics of Konnech, Stuart Thompson dismissed them out of hand as ravings of the paranoid fringe. Even as Gascón had arranged to arrest Yu and charge him with precisely what this group claimed, Thompson reported their concerns thusly:

But the attacks on Konnech demonstrate how far-right election deniers are also giving more attention to new and more secondary companies and groups. Their claims often find a receptive online audience, which then uses the assertions to raise doubts about the integrity of American elections.

Unlike other election technology companies targeted by election deniers, Konnech, a company based in Michigan with 21 employees in the United States and six in Australia, has nothing to do with collecting, counting or reporting ballots in American elections. Instead, it helps clients like Los Angeles County and Allen County, Ind., with basic election logistics, such as scheduling poll workers.

No kidding. That seems pretty important to Gascón, though, and to Los Angeles County in the original contract. Poll-workers’ personal data is normally protected not just to keep from discouraging people to volunteer, but also to ensure that outsiders cannot corrupt election processes by bribing or coercing those poll workers. Konnech apparently did leave that data where China could access it, at the very least, and perhaps even intend to facilitate such corruption of election processes. Gascón didn’t start an extradition process for Yu from Michigan just for the fun of it, after all.

Even more amusing, Yu tried suing True the Vote over the allegations, forcing Catherine Engelbrecht to reveal her source to the court last month. That may have backfired, although Gascón’s office claims it didn’t have any connection to their investigation. However True the Vote is claiming vindication now:

The judge in the case granted Konnech’s request for an emergency restraining order, which required True the Vote to disclose who had allegedly gained access to Konnech’s data. True the Vote released the name in a sealed court filing.

“The organization is profoundly grateful to the Los Angeles district attorney’s office for their thorough work and rapid action in this matter,” the group said in a statement.

Maybe next time, reporters can try reporting rather than just regurgitating their own conspiracy theories as “news.” It would save them embarrassing episodes such as this, and might actually allow for the issues of election security to get discussed in a rational manner. No one thinks that Konnech managed to throw the election in 2020 by working in deep-blue states like California and Illinois, after all — but outside penetration of US election systems used to matter, at least when Democrats and the mainstream media didn’t like the outcome of those elections.