The NJ Editorial writers have decided to wag their confused (and often hypocritical) finger at the Obama re-election campaign for poking fun at the whole “birther” business and raising money from that amusement. This is what they are having a snit over:
Birthers’ ideological differences exposed them for their extreme paranoia about this country’s first black president.
But team Obama is being petty by wading into the same kind of mean-spirited carnival barking the president accused Trump of.
The problem, of course, is that the NJ itself is partially responsible for some of the carnival here. They certainly ran their fair share of stories on the local carnival barkers touting this birther business, even taking up a small bit of paper real estate asking people to help them *find* Ground Zero of the Delaware Birther Carnival Barkers — Crazy Eileen.
But apparently now that there isn’t a wingnut food fight that they can try to sell papers on, the NJ has decided that everyone else should stop laughing at the carnival barkers who are hugely supported by (and partially a creation of) the media. Because covering the food fight is so much more fun (and so much easier!) than covering the policy. And wagging your wizened finger at the Obama campaign for mocking the wingnut carnival barkers is no substitute for more care in how your own paper helps to create and sustain the carnival.
Anyone want to give me odds on how often the NJ will be calling out other campaigns for raising money on silliness?