Somehow something every candidate does caught journalists off guard.

The Democratic candidates have been canvassing Iowa, making a number of required stops throughout, pretending as required they are just like the normals, and eating all the required foods. During his stay in this foreign land Bernie Sanders made the attempt to stage a campaign event that would endear him to the locals.

It was recently announced that Major League Baseball will be playing a regular season game at the famed Field Of Dreams stadium, in Dubuque Iowa. This is the now famous landmark location where the titular baseball motion picture was filmed, and the Sanders campaign officials were struck with an idea to hold a softball game at the location. Not much of a problem so far; these are just the kind of photo-ops campaigns stage to get publicity, and to raise more money.

To celebrate tonight's softball game at the iconic Field of Dreams, we made these limited-edition baseball cards!

Donate any amount to get yours now. https://t.co/t6YJWoixmc

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 19, 2019

It is that last detail that emerged, much to the surprise of the journalists covering the Sanders campaign. See, it turned out the game being played for the Sanders campaign was a contest between his staffers, and members of the media on the opposing team. It was only “at the last minute”, according to Politico, that members off the CNN and ABC News organizations who were going to play in the game backed out. This was due to a fundraising email the Sanders team sent out regarding the game.

It had not dawned on these journalists that the event may be spun in some fashion as a benefit for the campaign. And apparently, the fact that they intended to raise money off of the game was the only objection these journalists had. Otherwise, their co-mingling with the candidate and his staffers was not regarded as anything approaching a conflict of interest.

This harkens back to the 2016 race, where a cadre of journalists was beaming while surrounding Hillary Clinton aboard her private plane. And the same type of sycophantic behavior is on display this campaign. For instance behold this tweet from Kim Norvell, of the DesMoines Register.

Just happened to come across ⁦@ewarren⁩ buying lemonade from some girls in Harlan. It was $7 — she gave them $10.

This is Iowa! pic.twitter.com/jdMFDSuAiv

— Kim Norvell (@KimNorvellDMR) August 8, 2019

Pure happenstance, this little snapshot of Americana, eh?

This reporter from Iowa with the job of covering the campaign of Elizabeth Warren, who is campaigning in Iowa, “Just Happens” to come across Liz Warren while campaigning…in Iowa. Kim is the luckiest reporter — in Iowa, on the campaign trail!

So it appears we are getting more of the same from our esteemed leaders in unbiased objective journalism. Of course ,these professionals missed that there could be an issue of propriety by joining in on an organized event with the campaign they are covering.

Why would there be an issue playing softball with a candidate after they have been lobbing softball questions at him for weeks already???