Feigning ignorance when interviewing a subject can be a very useful tactic to get them to explain their thinking. Doing it to readers serves no one but an unscrupulous and deceitful writer.
I suspect this has less to do with feigned naivety and more with indignation that these kids didn’t scurry over to her weirdly predatory request for color commentary. She may have omitted her indignant “do you know who I am” spiel bc it was met with sincere confusion and disinterest
At the very least it's an institutional problem. Maybe opinion writers like Noonan and Baker might not know how things work because they rarely do, but editors who pride themselves on being trained journalists at acclaimed journalistic institutions should bounce that kind of bullshit column
