It would have created an absolutely unholy mess with plenty of collateral damage. This guy really deserved everything he got at the same time I wonder about his mental state. You have to be more than just a little bit disconnected from reality to do this sort of thing without a thought for the consequences. Now you almost have to wonder what other skeletons there are in that cupboard waiting to be uncovered.

So you are saying it _was_ an option and the editor just has bad taste

That may be, but it still hurts readability. It also immediately stuck out to me

As a prior, I'd assume that the conspiracist is probably more willing to "make that stuff happen". Sometimes, the accusation is the confession.

I'd argue that it's the anti-conspiracy theories, that are just as common and almost as insidious. For example, the idea that the intelligence agencies aren't aware of what their government representatives are doing in the background, and can't/don't influence it. There are literally thousands of individuals who work in the same town with the same people with, their very jobs are to discover and keep secrets, and they are almost all presumably capable. Means, motive, and opportunity. And yet, supposedly of the many thousands, none of them has ever done it without express permission from a judge. It would take a massive conspiracy of group think for it not to happen.