Did Star-Ledger Editor become part of the story?

According to a source who claims direct knowledge of it, Star-Ledger Editor Tom Moran contacted Republican Party officials in an attempt to have GOP candidate Synnove Bakke recant some controversial opinions she had expressed some years ago regarding Muslims and Islamic terrorism.  Apparently, after this attempt to steer a political campaign the Star-Ledger launched an editorial attack on the candidate and the entire state GOP. 

If this is true -- and we will publish in full and unedited any clarification offered by Mr. Moran -- it represents an escalation of the growing censoriousness by the political pundits who now shape and control news content in New Jersey.  If true, then it is political correctness gone mad -- choking the free expression of ideas, constraining candidates, censoring them when they neglect to self-censor, and through them telling us all what to think, what to do, and how to feel.

Political pundits have pushed traditional journalists out and have taken over the reporting of the news.  But instead of reporting the news, these pundits try to steer it, picking winners and losers as they go.  Instead of reporting what one candidate said and then asking his or her opponent for comment, they condemn what a candidate says as "out of bounds" and then ask the opponent and others to pile on.  Who elected these pundit "judges" to preside over us and to determine what may and may not be said? 

These pundits are paid by extraordinarily rich and powerful families.  The stinking rich, union-busting Newhouse family, the corrupt Kushner family, the in and out of bankruptcy Trumps.  Their money does not set the bounds of what we can and cannot say.  We shouldn't be afraid of people whose personal lives are replete with the shame they attempt to use to muzzle us.

Rough speech is genuine, from the heart.  Do not shame it.  Let people vent, allow the emotion to flow free.  If there is something in it with which you disagree, if you see an error, then cure it with dialog -- not with name-calling and attempts to shame.  That only shuts people up, makes them give up, and tune out.  But maybe that is what you want?