Dirty Pool At The Boston Globe

Is John Kerry’s hometown paper acting as a spin arm of the Kerry campaign? Via Drudge, a couple of items that’d give one that impression:

BOSTON GLOBE journalist Mike Kranish has been commissioned to write the foreword of the official Kerry-Edwards campaign book — just as he is covering the campaign in an official capacity as a journalist for the BOSTON GLOBE!

Kranish made waves on Friday by reporting in the GLOBE how a key figure in the anti-Kerry vet ad campaign, Kerry’s former commanding officer, “backed off one of the key contentions.”

But Captain George Elliott claims the Kranish article is “extremely inaccurate” and highly misstated his actual views.

Having Kranish being a paid part of Kerry’s campaign book is pretty damning for the Globe (owned by the New York Times Corporation, incidentally). While I’m very much in favor of reporters disclosing their political views, having what amounts to a Kerry staffer covering his campaign is going several steps too far.

When Kranish’s story broke this morning, my reaction was that it was very bad news for the “Swift Vets” group to have their credibility undercut so quickly. Now I think things may work in exactly the opposite direction. Elliott’s post-story denial has a lot more impact cast in the light of Kranich’s connections with Kerry, more than it would have if any other reporter had “broken” today’s story.

Keep watching this one, particularly for when and if Elliott goes on the record in front of the cameras. It’s more than appropriate to ask whether Kranich is reporting Elliott’s statements accurately, or carrying water for a campaign that he overtly supports. We’ll have to wait and see if the rest of the media has the cojones to put one of their own under the conflict-of-interest microscope.