WALTER SHAPIRO: “After covering John Edwards — and liking him — for years, what I thought I knew about him was wrong. But reporters often misjudge candidates.” And yet they allow their judgments to drive their reporting. Often — as the Legacy Media’s behavior over Edwards demonstrates yet again — to a ridiculous degree.

UPDATE: John Weidner thinks reporters are particularly dumb — and think we are too:

Edwards and his wife almost certainly coldly planned how to woo you, and knew what your weaknesses are. That’s what trial lawyers do with a jury. They study every scrap of information available on each juryman, and tailor the message to fit them. . . . Everybody who retained any objectivity could see that he was a phony, and were not surprised by this. When a guy talks populism and green-ism while building the biggest mansion in the county, there’s a 99% chance that he’s a sham. When a guy spends minutes in front of a mirror fluffing his hairdo, there’s a 99% chance that he will not resist the sexual temptations available to a celebrity.

Indeed.