AIRBRUSH ALERT:

Washington Post congressional reporter Erica Werner tweeted on Tuesday that a “Benghazi bomb-thrower” and a “torture overseer” will be the new secretary of state and CIA director if they are confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

…And then deleted her tweet (not before it was screencapped, fortunately). As John Hinderaker writes, “Erica Werner is the Washington Post’s congressional reporter. I think we can assume she speaks for the Democratic Party.”

TWITTER BOTS HARDEST HIT: If War Comes, Russia Could Disconnect from the Internet. Yes, the Entire Country.

I LIKE THIS: This Is a Corvette Grand Sport.

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Tools & Home Improvement.

Plus, deals on Most Wished-For Items.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Could Immigration #Resistance Send Federal Troops To California? Starring Gov. Jerry Brown in the role of Gov. Orval Faubus.

TEAM TRUMP VERSUS NORTH KOREA:

Trump is a man who intuitively seeks and finds leverage in business negotiations…Since his election in November 2016, that skill is now applied to two entwined problems from Hell that for six decades have boggled U.S. foreign policy officials and the vain goblins at the Council on Foreign Relations: ending The Korean War and halting nuclear proliferation.

It’s my latest essay for The New York Observer.

OUTRAGED PEOPLE OUTRAGED: LGBT Activists Are LIVID About Trump Naming CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State.

I can’t seem to recall exactly what domestic LGBT policy falls under State’s purview.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: McGeorge Law School To Reduce Faculty By 25% Through Voluntary Buyouts. “According to Law School Transparency, McGeorge’s 1L enrollment has fallen 56% from 2010 (from 346 to 152), and its LSAT median has fallen from 158 to 151.”

SNOWFALLS ARE A THING OF THE PAST: Keep out the snow shovel. Another nor’easter, ‘bomb cyclone’ expected.

JOE PAPPALARDO: The Owner’s Guide To Your New Space Station.

I’M SURE THIS IS SOMEHOW RACIST: Tim Scott Tells ‘Communities Of Color’ To Celebrate Trump Tax Cuts As Black Unemployment Continues To Drop.

I SAW SOME LEFTY ATTACKING IT AS A KOCH BROTHERS SCHEME TO NEUTER THE FDA: Fate hazy for GOP bill helping dying patients try new drugs.

Oh, right, it was just Hiltzik.

SARAH HOYT: The White Supremacists’ Self-Identify.

Some weeks ago, my friend Larry Correia wrote an article in which he defended poor people against the charge of not being able to cook, or otherwise take care of themselves. An elitist snob claimed – basically – that poor people had no choice but to buy fast food because learning to shop and cook from scratch, let alone buy the utensils necessary to the process, was an impossible ramp to climb.

Larry, who grew up, if not poor on paper, certainly not particularly well-off in reality, had lots of fun with this concept. So did all of us who read his article.

Imagine our surprise when that same day his Wikipedia entry was vandalized to identify him as a white supremacist writer.

Read the whole thing.

TO BE FAIR, MUELLER HASN’T FOUND ANY EITHER: Despite Mueller’s Push, House Republicans Declare No Evidence of Collusion.

AT AMAZON, spring savings on Leather Jackets & Denim.

ETHICS GUIDELINES? THAT’S FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: The Washington Post, to its credit, established social media guidelines as long ago as 2011. (The New York Times only followed suit last year). Those guidelines seem to be founded on a self-image of honest and brave truth-seeking reporters able to separate their own biases from what they tweet, lest the sterling reputation of The Washington Post be sullied:

Social-media accounts maintained by Washington Post journalists — whether on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or elsewhere — reflect upon the reputation and credibility of The Washington Post’s newsroom…we must be ever mindful of preserving the reputation of The Washington Post for journalistic excellence, fairness and independence. Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything — including photographs or video — that could be perceived as reflecting political, racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism.

This morning Twitchy reports that Washington Post “congressional reporter” Erica Werner certainly has some strong feelings on Mike “Benghazi bomb-thrower” Pompeo as Secretary of State and Gina “torture overseer” Haspel as CIA director, and tweeted out the following:

“A Benghazi bomb-thrower will be SecState and a torture overseer will be CIA director — IF CONFIRMED BY THE SENATE”

Now, if she were a columnist, I’d have no beef with this, after all, opinions are what they are paid to write. But when a “congressional reporter” resorts to this kind of slimery, well, she just gives the public more reasons to distrust her reporting — and that of The Post in general.

It’s a good thing there’s an Ombudsman or Public Editor there to keep an eye on these things. Oh, wait…
**UPDATE: ORIGINAL TWEET FLUSHED DOWN MEMORY HOLE**

AN IDEA SO CRAZY, IT JUST MIGHT WORK: Drugmakers try rare tactic to boost sales: cutting the price by thousands.

AND ANOTHER ONE GONE: Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov found dead at his London home.

DEMS ONCE THOUGHT IT COOL TO CALL OUT JOURNALISTS, EVEN THREATEN THEM:

Truman was not at all shy about insulting journalists in private and in public.  He referred to columnist Westbrook Pegler as “a guttersnipe.”  He called Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson “gutter columnists” as well.  The Alsop brothers, Stewart and Joseph, he called the “All Slops.”  In private, he called columnist Frank Kent a “prostitute of the mind.”  In public, he called him “intellectually dishonest.”

As with Trump, Truman’s war with the press led many in the media to accuse him of suppressing press freedom, an argument he had no use for.  In an unpublished missive, he wrote, “The old Moslem assinsins [sic] of Mesopotamia have a much better chance of a considered judgment in the end than have these paid mental whores of the controlers [sic] of our so-called ‘free press.'”

Truman continued, “This so-called ‘free press’ is about as free as Stalin’s press.  The only difference is that the Stalin frankly controlled his and the owners and publishers of our press are always yapping about the Constitution and suppressing a free press.”

Like Trump, too, he accused the press of conflating news and editorial.  “News should be reported as it happened,” he wrote, and editorials should be stated exclusively as “the opinions of the owners & publishers.”  During his presidency, Truman thought the New York Times the only nationally circulated paper that confined editorial opinion to the editorial page.

The press protected Truman, however, in ways that it would never protect Trump.  Washington Post journalist Marquis Childs was once dispatched to the White House to ask Truman if he would present an award at a gathering of black journalists.  Said Truman to Childs, “I get along pretty well with the burr heads … until sooner or later I say nigger.”  Childs, who was white, reported this only years after Truman had left the White House.

Truman’s predecessor presented a New York Daily News reporter whose opinions he disliked with a Nazi Iron Cross at the height of World War II.

NEO-OTTOMANS: Turkey poised to open a military front in Iraq.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Research: Blood thinner reduces risk after heart damage in surgery.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Not ‘Toxic Masculinity,’ but None: Most Mass Shooters Are Fatherless.

ROGER KIMBALL: Hillary Clinton, Pride of Radcliffe. Ouch.

JOY BEHAR FINALLY PUBLICLY APOLOGIZES FOR ANTI-CHRISTIAN COMMENTS ON THE VIEW: 

After Behar’s controversial comments, the Media Research Center launched a campaign against The View, pressuring its advertisers to pull support for the show until a formal apology was made for the crass, bigoted comments made on February 13.

Almost 40,000 calls were made to ABC from the MRC’s grassroots army, which resulted in intense media scrutiny of the network and has prompted both a private and public apology from the show host.

Behar’s private apology occurred after the National Center’s Justin Danhof showed up at a Disney shareholder meeting on Thursday and demanded of Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Specifically, do you think, like Ms. Hostin and Ms. Behar, that having a Christian faith is akin to a dangerous mental illness?”

Iger responded: “Joy Behar apologized to Vice President Pence directly. She made a call to him and apologized, which I thought was absolutely appropriate.” For more on the National Center’s efforts, go here.

As a legendary community organizer advises, get in their faces and punch back twice as hard.