USA Today reports:
The questions about Sen. Ted Cruz's citizenship may just be beginning.At RealClearPolitics, Tom Bevan takes down a weird Daily Beast hit piece.
Political analysts said Tuesday that Cruz may think he's tamping down a controversy by renouncing his previously unknown Canadian citizenship, but the situation may prove to be nettlesome — just like questions about President Obama's citizenship.
Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, calls it the "nuisance factor."
"If we learned anything from the allegations surrounding President Obama's citizenship, it's this: Facts may be stubborn things, but people's beliefs can be a lot more stubborn than the facts," Scala said. "Many people believe what they want to believe, regardless of the facts, especially when it's about a public figure they do not like in the first place."
All of this was neatly packaged on The Daily Beast’s front page under the headline “Cruz’s ‘Creepy’ Years,” posing the question to its readers: “Can a master debater who used to stroll by the women’s wing of the dorm in a paisley bathrobe be the next president?”
The “master debater” double-entendre is the giveaway. This pun is more suitable for an episode of "Beavis and Butt-head" than a news organization that comprises the remnants of Newsweek.
But, unfortunately, this kind of story - unflattering, decades-old recollections from acquaintances dressed up as news - is becoming more and more prevalent. The Daily Beast's piece on Cruz represents a new low for the genre and for modern political journalism, but I'm sure it won't be long before someone, somewhere plumbs new depths.
