Thanks, liberal media!

Just a suggestion for the Foremost Newspaper of the Carolinas: One reason the now-famous tweet "appears" to depict a Star of David is that it actually does depict a Star of David.

There's actually quite a bit of undue seeming out there, as evidenced by this from the Indianapolis Star:

An entry in Sheridan's Independence Day Parade included what many are calling a racist depiction of President Obama in a toilet and the words "Lying African."

And did it occur to anyone to suggest that maybe "many are calling" the mini-float a "racist depiction" because, you know, it is?

There is, of course, the obligatory comment from the driver:

Driver said he is tired of political correctness and was just trying to be funny. The display was not intended to be racist, he said. Driver  agreed that others have a right to be offended, just as he has the right to express his views.

"I apologize to anyone I offended, which would be a total liberal. I have my right to say things," Driver said. "Isn't that what the Fourth of July's about? Freedom."

The Trump defense is if anything more amusing (though not surprising, given how few alarm bells "America First" seems to have rung in his campaign). Should you have missed it, here's the offending tweet and its replacement, as provided at CNN:

Hence this summary:

Trump rejected the Clinton campaign's accusations that his tweet was anti-Semitic by slamming "false attacks" and insisting the star represented a sheriff's badge.

 

"These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says 'Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever' with anti-Semitism is ridiculous," Trump said in the statement.

 

And the official it-ain't-official-until-it's-on-Twitter tweet:

Weird as it sounds, some of us didn't grow up associating the Shield of David with the "Sheriff's Star."  Nor does it seem to be what the Florida Sheriffs Association had in mind for the homepage of The Sheriffs Star, or what you'd find on the homepage of Sheriff's Star Charities over in the Panhandle. It's tempting to wonder whether someone just made that up.

The larger point, though, is what journalists do with the evidence provided by their own eyes.  North Carolina's funny-looking foreign motto, after all, is "to be, rather than to seem." Maybe we should do Mr. Trump the courtesy of acknowledging that he fits the bill.