Honestly, this is why we're in the kind of race-baiting mess that we are this summer, because independent journalists won't call the rancid stuff out. Or just as worse, they hide behind the everybody-does-it defense.

Behold Ben Smith at Politico this morning:

The America of 2010 is dominated by racial images out of farce and parody, caricatures not seen since the glory days of Shaft. Fox News often stars a leather-clad New Black Panther, while MSNBC scours the tea party movement for racist elements, which one could probably find in any mass organization in America.

See, even though Fox News has aired nearly 100 'news' segments about the phony, race-baiting New Black Panther Party 'story,' in recent weeks, it's just like MSNBC because MSNBC “scours the tea party movement for racist elements,” whatever that means. And BTW, Smith thinks the racist elements found in the Tea Party are no different than “any mass organization in America.”

You mean like Knights of Columbus, or the Boy Scouts, or AARP or American Legion? If MSNBC scoured those mass organizations it would find just as many racist elements as the Tea Party?

The irony is that Smith's observation comes in his piece about how the conversation about race in America has gotten “dumber” under Obama.

UPDATED: Interesting that in his piece, Smith made no mention that Fox News' Glenn Beck has insinuated Obama is orchestrating a “race war,” or that Rush Limbaugh claims Obama is keeping unemployment high in order to extract revenge on white America. It would seem that kind of hateful rhetoric has a lot to do with the “dumb” conversation about race now taking place.