When President Trump nominated Tom Farr for the vacant federal judgeship in eastern North Carolina, Anthony Spearman, the head of the state NAACP, headed to Washington to disagree. But his pilgrimage took an odd twist when he compared Tom Farr to Adolph Hitler.

Trump appointing Hitler? Pure political bluster.

But fiction took on a life of its own when the News and Observer handed Spearman a megaphone with a story headlined: Trump pick on bench is ‘tantamount’ to Hitler wreaking havoc among Jews, NAACP leader says.

There was a time…when newspapers reported facts.