Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
Boston Globe reporter Mike Reiss dove into his weekly mailbag column expecting to discover a Patriots fan base that had grown weary of the attention given to Spygate. Instead he encountered another round of Spygate-related questions, which he answered at some length. The part that resonated most with me was his take on the basis for some of Sen. Arlen Specter's comments at his news conference last week:
As for my opinion on some of Specter's comments, I found them to be eye-opening in this aspect: he was quoting the New York Times as a reference, as well as ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth, to support his case. One that jumped out to me was when he was referencing an article from the Sunday New York Times (May 11) that included several mistakes implicating the Patriots that were later corrected (e.g. clock operators are hired by the NFL and not teams; the game-day monitoring of the communication device between the coach and quarterback is done by the NFL, not teams). Also, Specter's floor statement was filled with mistakes. I was surprised at this.
People quoted in the nearly 3,700-word mailbag column appeared to have grown weary of certain aspects of coverage, including coverage provided by a "national media" that includes the New York Times, ESPN and ESPN.com. Some wanted to know why former Pats video assistant Matt Walsh wasn't viewed more skeptically.
Among the things likely to be viewed more skeptically in the future: stories citing a single anonymous source. My perception is that such stories have become more common. As the mailbag column notes, the Globe recently distributed a memo reminding employees of policies regarding anonymous sources.
