I just wanted to add to Jamison's post about how Andrew Alexander played dumb about the rancid race baiting that's at the center of the phony, NBP conspiracy. Last week, when writing about the lack of mainstream media interest in the right-wing crusade I suggested this:

[R]eporters covering the story on any level would have to acknowledge how Obama's right-wing critics were leveling astonishing, race-baiting charges while trying to prop the story up. (The tale only works on a paranoid, blacks-are-out-to-get-us level.) ... I'm not saying reporters would have to take sides and condemn the comments. But reporters covering the NBP 'controversy' would have to acknowledge the very ugly context and the very ugly rhetoric that's being pumped out by Fox News and other far-right commentators.

Boy, did Alexander prove me wrong, as he deftly wrote about the NBP 'scandal' without lifting a finger to acknowledge the hate fueling the story.

Meanwhile, in a sad piece of (predictable) irony, the comment section attached to Alexander's column (y'know, the one that ignored the obvious race baiting in play), plays host to this openly racist, Obama-hating observation about Post editor Kevin Merida, who was quoted in the Alexander piece saying the Post should have covered the NBP story sooner [emphasis added]:

Kevin Merida is Black and has been in the pocket of Barack Obama since the primaries. I can understand if one Black man wants to defend another Black man; but don't insult my intelligence by saying that the decision (by Merida) not to publish an article unfavorable to Obama was based on journalistic issues. When will Black people learn that they will never be accepted as real journalists as long as they are a cheering section fo Obama. I also include other Post people: Eugene Robinson, Colbert King, Jonathan Capehart, Keith Richberg, Krissha (sp?) Thompson, etc.

At last count, the ugly, all-the-black-guys-are-in-on-it comment was recommended 16 times by various Post readers. But don't tell Alexander, who prefers to play dumb about the NBP-related race baiting on full display.