As I’ve said a million times, some days I really scratch my head and wonder exactly what goes on inside the heads of the so-called brains in local mainstream media. Today is no exception.

For starters, we have the Charlotte Observer editorial board, who can’t resist the temptation take a shot at Sen. Thom Tillis following his medical incident earlier this week. So predictable—the Observer self-righteously wishes Tillis well while in the same breath inquiring how much Tillis’ ambulance ride would cost someone without health insurance:

For most of us, that ride would be covered by insurance, so long as we don’t direct the ambulance driver to a facility farther than the closest hospital. Tillis, of course, is covered. Most of the 1,300 members of Congress and their staff get their insurance through gold-level program plans on the Washington, D.C., exchange, according to reports.

That’s right – Congress is on Obamacare. It’s one of the mandates of the Affordable Care Act.

But unlike millions of Americans, members of Congress can easily get new coverage if Obamacare is repealed and replaced by the American Health Care Act.

For those who can’t, that ambulance ride becomes a very different thing. That $1,000-plus would be a significant financial and emotional burden – and that doesn’t include the probability of another big bill from the hospital, even for a short stay like the one Tillis thankfully had.

Next we have N&R columnist Susan Ladd. My guess is Ladd is embarrassed to find out that her latest social justice cause–16-year-old Jose Charles, who had charges of assaulting a Greensboro police officer dropped last week, wasn’t exactly the choirboy she and her fellow reporters made him out to be. That’s exactly why she’s not letting it go, and in today’s column she criticizes City Council member Mike Barber for daring to point that fact out:

Barber cited the past criminal records of Charles’ parents and additional charges against Jose Charles that were a part of last week’s court proceedings — the charges from July 4 were dropped when he pleaded guilty to charges of felony breaking and entering and conspiracy — as a “very sad cycle of crime and poverty.”

“The representations of the convicted juvenile were grossly inaccurate,” Barber said, but his portrayal was no less one-sided. He failed to mention that the bulk of additional charges against Charles occurred AFTER his July 4 encounter with the GPD, which his mother says resulted in PTSD. He did not mention evidence presented in court that Charles suffers from mental-health problems, which had been misdiagnosed and treated with medications that worsened his condition.

Maybe it’s me, but if I’ve got assault charges pending against me, even if I’m innocent—especially if I’m innocent–I’d do my best to be a model citizen until my day in court instead of breaking and entering, joining gangs and possessing marijuana, as was revealed during Charles’ day in court. This is just another example of how in Susan Ladd’s world nobody is expected to take personal responsibility—every problem is a “societal” problem.

I need to have a long conversation in my own head and ask why I willingly subject myself to such local media insanity.