Richly deserved, and I say that as someone who’s goofed on Beck’s more febrile moments myself. If you missed the Krugman column in Headlines earlier, read it now; the lying turd went out of his way to mention O’Reilly and Beck without bothering to inform his readers that the Holocaust Museum shooter evidently had murderous designs on Fox News, too. Even now, I can’t decide whether the left’s extremism blame game is being played in bad faith or in “good.” Is it a simple question of dishonesty, holding people like O’Reilly responsible in order to score cheap points against an enemy whom they secretly believe is blameless? Or does their natural condescension lead them to assume in earnest that right-wingers are essentially stupid, violent, and “easily led,” and therefore putty in the hands of people like Beck? The fact that Krugman, Frank Rich, et al. feel comfortable spitting venom at the right week after week in the NYT and then pointing fingers at FNC for “incitement” when some nut pops off can only be explained, I think, by their belief that no one who reads a cosmopolitan leftist newspaper like the Times would ever do anything as gauche as pulling a gun on someone from the other side. That is to say, this is as much about Krugman’s and his audience’s perceptions of their own elitism as anything else. Either that or Krugman thinks he’s incapable of inciting anyone because he’s incapable of persuading anyone. In which case it’s high time he found a new line of work, no?

Exit question via Christine Flowers: How come all jihadist killers act alone but all “right-wing” killers have a million accomplices?