Free Republic

The Boston Globe is going through its biggest shake-up in 30 years. What will it mean for the paper, the editor, the remaining staff, and the city itself? There were more lumps of coal than holiday cheer at 135 Morrissey Boulevard this Christmas season. The invitation to the Boston Globe’s December 8 "Combination Christmas Party/Survivor Celebration" included the gallows-humor header: "Do We Ever Need a Party!" Editor Marty Baron’s year-end congratulatory e-mail opened with its own somber greeting: "I’m tempted, probably like many of you, to say good riddance to 2005." The proximate reason for the Yuletide pall was the...

As the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth previewed another ad to air next week, a survey released yesterday said their first controversial attack on John F. Kerry's war record reached more than half the nation with the help of a media buzz created by talk radio and cable news. The first spot, which began airing Aug. 5 and ran only in West Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin, triggered a counterattack on several fronts this week. On Thursday, Kerry accused the veterans of doing President Bush's campaign's "dirty work." A front-page story in yesterday's New York Times raised questions about the credibility...