If you want an example of how the news media can clean and sanitize things if they wish, read The News & Observer‘s top editorial today. In a discussion of the Republican and Democratic primaries there’s no mention at all of the Clintons’ racially tinged tag-team against Barack Obama. Here’s how the paper characterizes the Democratic contest:

What Democrats are left with, in terms of this campaign, “ain’t purty” as they say, but it’s testing the contenders’ strengths and weaknesses, which is exactly what a campaign ought to do.

So, the Clintons have performed exactly as a “campaign ought to do”? That’s not how Kirstin Powers, a Democratic strategist and commentator, sees it in the New York Post:

In response to a reporter’s question about the Clintons’ double-teaming Barack Obama, the former president answered with this non sequitur: “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Translation: Obama’s (just) the black candidate.

Talk about divisive and dishonest.

What Democratic primary is the N&O watching?