It’s astonishing that liberals think they can be liberal just anyplace. It’s like Russian journalists who think they can write something that embarrasses Putin. You’d think they’d do a quick Google search on “Russian journalists who criticized Putin shot while answering their front door,” and decide to write a column on gardening.
Turns out the only place you can safely criticize all aspects of the government is the good old USA.
Criticizing the Obama government was risky for journalists, iirc.