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This Just In: Media

Brian McGrory's self-indulgent overreaction

By Dan Kennedy

Yes, it's too early to attempt a comprehensive critique of the Boston Globe's new metro columnists, Adrian Walker and Brian McGrory. But given that McGrory wasted 779 self-indulgent words Tuesday responding to a recent suggestion by WGBH-TV's Emily Rooney that his columns could be a bit more spritely, you've got to wonder what his reaction will be when some real heat is directed his way.

Rooney, the host and major domo of Greater Boston, offended McGrory during the December 18 edition of "Beat the Press," a regular Friday feature. Following a short reported piece on Walker and McGrory by Greater Boston's John Carroll, Rooney and her panelists weighed in. Though McGrory seems to think that Rooney was singling him out, her mildly delivered comment that the columns struck her as "exceedingly dull" was clearly aimed at both writers. She also acknowledged the unfairness of judging them on the basis of just a handful of columns.

But McGrory responded with a piece whose tone of bemusement barely shielded some pretty vicious digs -- especially his revisiting an interview Rooney gave two years ago in which she made some ill-advised remarks about Boston Herald TV critic Monica Collins's weight. Collins, whom McGrory refers to as "a first-rate critic," had just trashed Rooney's show. But in a case of double-nondisclosure, McGrory failed to disclose that Collins had failed to disclose that she'd just lost her paying gig for The Group, the nightly gabfest that Greater Boston replaced. (While I'm playing the disclosure game, be advised that Rooney's had me on as an unpaid guest several times.)

McGrory and Walker are both off to okay starts. McGrory needs to do more reporting (his December 22 attempt to crawl into the mind of Bill Clinton was neither local nor particularly insightful, despite his previous posting in the Globe's Washington bureau). Walker needs to develop more of a point of view and avoid the sort of careless errors that led the Globe to publish a three-part correction following his debut column.

No one is expecting either of them to turn into Eileen McNamara or Peter Gelzinis overnight. But McGrory's readers would be better served if he'd expend more effort honing his chops and less worrying about what others are saying about him.