I read this NY Times piece today about candidates on the campaign trail with their kids, and was appalled to see just how heavily the whole thing was loaded against John Edwards. I was planning to write about it, but Jill over at Brilliant at Breakfast beat me to it.

Reporter Jodi Kantor did get in a few minor digs at Obama, but Edwards took the brunt of her judgment.

Of course, Kantor is one of those reporters who seems to think the way to play with the big boys is to be snide and cynical. Clearly, nastiness is “edgy”! From the Aug. 2005 New Criterion, where said publication runs a regular Jodi Kantor watch:

The memories. It seems like only yesterday, sniff, that a young editor, awww, named Jodi Kantor, applause, was hired by the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times. Her mandate–yes, it was a mandate, and she followed it–was, “less Peking Opera and more Britney Spears” for The Gray Lady. Since then, within the “building,” as they say at Times HQ, Kantor has become the recipient of the affectionate moniker “Heather.” That’s “Heather,” as in the mean-croquet-playing-chick-clique from the movie of the same name.

And since Kantor has a toddler herself, isn’t it at least possible she’s working out a few of her own emotional issues at the Edwards’ expense? (cough *helicopter mom* cough) I mean, when your very own Amazon wish list only includes Muppet movies and Sesame Street, might you not be, oh, I don’t know, just a tad over-identified with your own offspring? Might you be wrestling with a few guilt issues?

As the arts and leisure editor at the Times, Kantor was responsible for pointless drivel such as this access-free piece on Chelsea Clinton, this blog post on why Hillary wasn’t all sweaty at the Iowa State Fair, and stuff on nannies. (You can see where I’m going with this, right? “I made career sacrifices to be with my child, why can’t John Edwards?”)

Expect more of this. We have really bad national political reporting, and the more prestigious the publication, the worse it seems to get.