“maybe they didn’t want themselves dragged through the mud via guilt-by-association.”
That’s certainly understandable. But it doesn’t explain the article making it sound as though they didn’t open to tourism until the 1970’s. I’m sure it became an even bigger attraction after Bewitched, but to say “After “Bewitched,” Salem began to embrace a tourist-friendly version of its grim past.” just doesn’t seem accurate to me, especially coming from Smithsonian.
Yeah, it’s probably a reporter working on a self-help book to be titled, “The Agenda-Driven Life.”