Last night’s cable-news car crash reminded me of how reporters used to go to tea-party rallies and seek out the nuttiest people they could find for self-discrediting quotes and photos. A cheap tactic to smear the whole group, but an effective one. Took Morgan awhile but somehow he figured out that insulting soft-spoken gun-rights advocates to their faces is less persuasive than letting a guy famous for 9/11 conspiracy theories shriek about guns and 1776 and the New World Order on camera for 15 minutes. Dave Weigel says the segment was actually proof of how lame an interviewer Morgan is since he failed to really challenge Jones at any point. I dunno. The segment was designed to be a freak show that would hopefully alienate fencesitters from the gun-rights cause. Why interrupt the star attraction during his performance? It’s like criticizing a skeptic for inviting the “experts” from “Ancient Aliens” on and then not asking thoughtful questions about aerodynamics. Just wind ’em up and let ’em go.

“He was the best advertisement for gun control you could wish for,” Morgan told POLITICO.

“That kind of vitriol, hatred, and zealotry is really quite scary. I didn’t feel threatened by him, but I’m concerned that someone like him has that level of influence,” Morgan said. “There’s got to be a level of discourse that can rise above what happened last night. It was undignified, unedifying.”…

“Sometimes it’s better to let somebody have the rope they need to tie themselves in knots,” Morgan told POLITICO, noting that he had been far more vocal and more passionate in previous interviews with gun advocates. According to Morgan, Jones continued ranting straight through the commercial break that divided the two-segment interview…

“He is clearly a smart guy under the craziness,” Morgan said. “Look, you could tell from the way he ranted that he’s not a stupid man. But that makes him more dangerous. There will be lots of people who follow him avidly who are not so intelligent, who believe everything he says.”

As a chaser after yesterday’s shot, skip to 2:40 and listen as Mike Bloomberg’s plot to assassinate Jones with NYPD mafia dressed as crackheads is exposed. Any follow-up questions, anyone?