Just how corrupt are journalists these days? Consider this example from earlier in the week involving the explosive Minnesota fraud scandal – the one the mainstream media covered up for years and is now busy trying to downplay.

On Tuesday, Josh Gerstein, a “senior legal affairs reporter” for Politico, weighed in in response to the Nick Shirley video, in which the amateur journalist took his camera to various empty taxpayer-supported “day care centers” that were obvious fronts.

Instead of expressing outrage that fraudsters were stealing massive amounts of money meant to support poor families – and his colleagues in the mainstream press got scooped by a kid – Gerstein issued a veiled threat to people like Shirley.

“At some point,” he posted  on X, “the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws.”

That prompted a tsunami of angry responses, including one from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said, “You would think a ‘Senior Legal Affairs Reporter’ for POLITICO would know better than to tweet something inciting violence against federal agents.”

Gerstein tried to backpedal a little, saying, “To observe that something is likely to happen or there’s a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening.”

RELATED: “What Nick Shirley’s Minnesota Fraud Story Says About Legacy Media“

But that just proves Gerstein – a pedigreed journalist who’d previously been with CNN, ABC News, and the New York Sun – is woefully ignorant as well as recklessly irresponsible.

Because, despite what Gerstein claims, Minnesota doesn’t even have a “stand your ground” law – much less a “robust” one. It does, however, have a “duty to retreat” law.

Here’s how one law firm explains Minnesota’s law:

Essentially, if you’re attacked, the law mandates that you assess whether you can safely remove yourself from the situation before resorting to force that could potentially harm or kill another person.

Minnesota follows this principle, setting itself apart from states with ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws. While some states allow individuals to use deadly force without requiring them to retreat if they feel threatened, Minnesota’s law imposes a higher standard of responsibility on individuals to de-escalate and avoid violence whenever possible.

In fact, a bill that would have expanded the right of Minnesotans to use force in self-defense “regardless of whether a reasonable possibility of retreat to avoid the danger exists” failed in the House just this spring.

(By the way, it took us all of five minutes of research to learn these facts, even without “legal” in our title.)

There’s another wrinkle to this. Those of us who weren’t born yesterday remember when mainstream media types such as Gerstein were appalled by “stand your ground” laws, not hinting about how they could be used against journalists.

These laws – which are active in 30 states – gained national attention after George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in 2012 and cited Florida’s “stand your ground law” as his defense.

The press went into overtime, not only decrying such laws but also viciously attacking the American Legislative Exchange Council, which had promoted them, which then led to a multitude of corporate backers pulling funds from ALEC.

We don’t expect that Politico will follow our advice and send Josh Gerstein packing over an X post. Too bad, because it would be a small step toward restoring the credibility of mainstream journalism.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board