This report by my friend Mike Riggs in Washington’s CityPaper is worth a read for two reasons: First, because it is an interesting and amusing dispatch from a Whole Foods front, of interest in and of itself; second, because Riggs is and has always been open about the fact that his own politics are libertarian, making him arguably sympathetic to Whole Foods’s libertarianish CEO, John Mackey.

The commentors immediately denounced his story on ad hominem grounds, arguing that he should not have been sent to cover the event, notwithstanding that CityPaper is not a publication that seems to place a great deal of importance on the idea of objectivity. (The Economist it ain’t.) I wonder how many of them believe that NPR’s Nina Totenberg should have been removed from her reporting beat after wishing aloud on national television that Jesse Helms or one of his grandchildren would contract AIDS. I’m not sure whether it’s possible or desirable for a newspaper that spends so much time covering Marion Barry to pretend to objectivity. Really, can you be neutral on the subject of Marion Barry? Should you?