Upon his release after more than two years in an Iranian prison, American “hiker” Shane Bauer offered this statement: “Two years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.”

Seriously? Someone held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison for two years for and released on a half-million dollar bribe (called “bail” for political purposes, of course) after being charged with spying for walking on the wrong side of an undrawn line in the desert is suggesting moral equivlance between those whom America imprisons and those, including hundreds of political prisoners, in Iranian jails, not least Evin?

Given his statement, a little more information about Mr. Bauer will certainly not surprise: He is a freelance journalist working for New America Media which describes itself as “the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations.” A quick scan of the group’s web page shows the left-leaning bias you would expect. And you’ll be even less surprised to learn that Bauer “graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies.”

From this I draw a few conclusions:

• The far left really does hate America.
• Parents, please don’t let your kids go to Berkeley.
• There is absolutely no chance that Shane Bauer is a spy…at least not for the United States.