There’s a long article on Sen. John Edwards in today’s Boston Globe that details his career as a malpractice trial lawyer who takes advantage of the law and the sympathies of juries to run up huge damage awards for his clients.
If I didn’t know any better I would think I was reading National Review or the Washington Times, not the Globe. The huge awards are portrayed as a bad thing, and big companies and rich doctors are seen as victims of greed. Even the trial lawyers are shown as the purveyors of sophistry, false sympathy, and manipulation.
I scratched my head at this sudden turnaround until I realized the most important detail sitting right in the first sentence of the story. John Edwards is running for president.
Of course. Edwards is a rival of the Globe‘s favored son, John F. Kerry. (That’s what they call Kerry, making sure to insinuate some link with John F. Kennedy.) Recall that the newspaper had a seven-part series months ago that was a paean to the candidate. But now Kerry is mired in the basement in polls, getting the same numbers as Al Sharpton! And notice where Kerry made his public announcement that he is running for president—in South Carolina.
Kerry has written off New Hampshire and pins his hopes for primary success on South Carolina. Since that’s Edwards’ backyard, the Globe conveniently runs a front-page article taking him down. I fully expect to see other articles taking on the other Democrats. Nice to see objective reporting. And fraternal warfare among the Democrats.
