Digging the Dig

Once again, the Boston Globe turns over prime newsprint real estate to David D'Alessandro for ... what exactly? A cab ride in London? At least we know D'Alessandro travels and probably that he reads Tom Friedman. I'd guess that the Globe is blessing us with D'Alessandro's boosterish pablum as a nudge-nudge-wink-wink sweetener for all the advertising John Hancock provides.

As they say, the market has already discounted D'Alessandro's pedestrian (heh) analysis. Putting it in print was a waste of readers' time.

Wasting op-ed space

If you want an example of how thoroughly captured by PR apparatus the media is, see today's Boston Globe op-ed page. David D'Alessandro, late of John Hancock, bloviates for 700 words or more on presidential succession. Why did he get this valuable platform? My guess is that he has a flack helping him.

Yet, he has no qualifications for this gig (witness his oversimplification of the Constitution) and nothing much interesting to say about a topic that is only vaguely related to the issues of the day. His proposals also have zero chance of implementation - seriously, is this what we need to amend the Constitution about - and I'd bet his interest will wane now that he has seen his name in print.

In America, though, businessmen believe that their pecuniary success entitles them to lead elsewhere - and editors let them. Latin America may have colonels; we've got captains of industry - or in this case finance.

This sort of vanity op-ed is another reason the media can't find room for real dissenting voices.