It’s hard to fathom what exactly the Boston Globe hoped to accomplish with its satirical Donald Trump front page.

The editorial board explanation that accompanies the spoof is an unpersuasive defense of the liberal publication’s assault on the Republican Party presidential frontrunner.

Although true that The Donald’s xenophobic, misogynistic and jingoistic rhetoric has stirred the anger of millions of frustrated Americans, a strongly worded editorial stance would have been more appropriate.

I don’t support The Donald. Neither do I favor a Ted Cruz presidency, which the Boston Globe correctly characterizes as “perhaps more dangerous.”  But if the newspaper feels so strongly that it will devote the front page of its Sunday edition with the obvious intention of frightening us with the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House, will it publish a Ted Cruz spoof next week?

How about a satirical look at the unrealistic socialist utopia espoused by Senator Bernie Sanders?  But perhaps the Globe is too ideologically blind to  see that  the ideas Sanders proposes are  in some ways as  dangerous as a Trump America.

The Globe’s Donald Trump was wrongheaded at least, and an insult to American journalism at worst. We’d expect such a front page from the satirical Onion, which boasts—tongue in cheek—to be “America’s Finest News Source.”

It’s ironic that the Globe condemns the historical similarities between Donald Trump and other demographic strongmen. In its criticism the newspaper’s fails to recognize that its bogus front page resurrects the darkest days of American “yellow journalism”  and the worst abuses of “The Penny Press.”

The Boston Globe managed to tarnish its own journalistic legacy in its campaign to smear Donald Trump and by extension the Republic Party.

As disappointing as this presidential campaign has been—considering both the Democrat and Republican field—equally depressing is the willingness of some news organizations to engage in mudslinging and unethical posturing.

We now can add the Boston Globe to that list of shame.