Liberals used to criticize conservative critics of the welfare state by saying they were all about “blaming the victim.” But today, liberal journalists seem to favor a different tactic: blaming who the victims blame. So what we get this morning is Matt Lauer interviewing Ray Nagin, spreading wild-eyed conspiracy theories from Spike Lee& Co. that the New Orleans levees were dynamited to flood out the black population. This is, journalism school students, spreading completely unproven and malicious bunk:

“Finally the elephant in the room, if you will, Mr. Nagin. There are still people in the black community, many people, and Brian Williams touched on this in a special last night on NBC, who believe that the day after Katrina struck New Orleans the levees were breached intentionally. That they were blown, if you will, to flood black and poor neighborhoods to spare middle-class white neighborhoods. It would seem very difficult for New Orleans to move forward until that’s directly addressed. What do you say about it?”

At least Nagin said there was no proof. But why is he even getting the question? How does Matt Lauer combat the idea that he’s a news-lite Boy Toy with questions like this? How do supposedly serious NBC News executives like Tim Russert defend putting this Evil Whitey gunk out there on the nation’s most popular morning show (not to mention whatever Brian Tupac Williams said?) And they’re dreading that the Republicans are going to use racial wedge-politicking in the fall campaign??Up next at NBC? Perhaps the theory that “Japan’s Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb attack.”