Bob Edwards, for decades the host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” is out making wacky comments in his home state of Kentucky. In a speech, he warned that the United States is in a period like the McCarthy era of the 1950s, in which the government is stifling political dissent while the news media and the public fail to speak out in vigorous opposition. Speaking at Centre College in Danville, Edwards said the “Bush administration holds reporters in contempt” and has become the “all-time champion of information control.” Compared to what? To which totalitarian regime?

There is a very serious line coming out of the left now (see journalism prof Jay Rosen) that the White House is out to “de-certify” the press. That’s of course, not literal — they haven’t cut up everyone’s press credentials and told them go home — it’s just dramatic, like a brat’s fit. (That’s not counting CBS trying really hard to de-certify itself as a serious news outlet.) After trying to pound the innards out of Bush last year, the liberal media establishment would now have us believe that his current successes only prove his Kung Fu grip on the press’s throat. Ridiculous.