The Choice to Go Negative

By Steve Poftak
March 11th, 2008

By Obama? No, Silly. The New England Patriots.

The Boston Globe dedicates a full page of its sports section on Monday to a relentless unpacking of the short and undistinguished life of former Patriots videotape intern/employee Matt Walsh, who may shortly testify about the team’s videotaping activities.

Former sportswriter and current enterprise reporter Bob Hohler discovers that Mr. Walsh frequently puffed up his various internships on his resume, was a real jerk in college, and has bounced around as an assistant golf pro (or is that assistant to the golf pro?) for the past few years.

I love the Pats (even if Coach Belichick’s “it takes two to argue” defense of Spygate got to be a bit old). But I can’t help but think that members of the Patriots front office assisted the Globe in this effort. And I can’t help but question the Globe’s decision to dedicate so many column inches to such a low level staffer.