It's close to Halloween - let the witch hunt begin! Tony Stewart and the mainstream media

We're halfway through the month of October, so you know what that means right? Lots of little ghosts and goblins and witches and zombies running through the neighborhood, and many children drifting off into a diabetic coma after ingesting too many Skittles, M&Ms and Starburst.

But since we're so close to Halloween, why not continue the tradition started in Salem, Mass. back in the 1600s? Let's go on an old-fashioned witch hunt with the mainstream media! The target? That should be obvious! None other than three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart.

No wait.

According to the mainstream media, it's not "three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart." It's "Tony Stewart, who back in August struck and killed Kevin Ward at Canandaigua Speedway in New York State."

Never mind that a thorough investigation found ZERO criminal liability. Nope, none of that matters.

What does matter is there are plenty of video clips of Stewart losing his temper, and on Saturday night they added another one when he backed his car into Brad Keselowski after contact at the entrance of pit road following the race. Those video clips lead to the opportunity to sensationalize! Why let the facts get in the way of a good story, right?

We've seen Good Morning America and now ABC World News Tonight both present abysmally poor reports on the so-called "NASCAR Brawl" following the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Both reports made it seem like Stewart backed into Keselowski with the intent to do physical harm, which, after all wouldn't be a surprise because hey look at this video of Kevin Ward running down the track after Tony crashed him!

Yes, the incident on pit road and the following rumble in the garage isn't quite the image NASCAR wants to present to sponsors. But you know what? It's exactly that image that NASCAR fans crave.

Emotions! Anger at your follow competitors. The frustration of being on the brink of Chase elimination. It all boiled over and the result was great theater for those of us watching at the track and at home. By the way, none of that anger and frustration involved Tony Stewart until the drivers feeling those emotions involved him in their fracas. Then and only then did Tony deliver his message.

And that message was as minor as it could possibly be.

So Tony rumpled Brad's fenders. Big deal. How is that worse than throwing a brushback pitch at a batter's head? Or an illegal chop block aimed at injuring a football player? Or an enforcer dropping a shoulder and breaking a hockey player's ribs? Here's the answer: it's not worse. In fact, it doesn't even rate. Very simply, it's not news.

And while we're at it, let's put an end to the "well, Tony should have known better after all he's been through" crap that's floating around out there. Tony did nothing wrong at Canandaigua, and his participation in the incident at Charlotte was tangential at best. As soon as he starts thinking that way, he's done as a competitive racecar driver.

The story isn't so much that Tony "lost his temper and backed into another driver's car". No. The story is, finally, "Tony Stewart is back."

It's a real shame some major mainstream news agencies chose not to report it that way.