Regards

The hand-wringing has begun, following a jury's $2.1 million libel award to Judge Ernest B. Murphy against the Boston Herald. Ah me, woe is me, does this prove the public doesn't trust the media? (Excuse me, that's news?) Will it have a dampening effect on America's tradition of squeaky-clean investigative journalism? Nope.

There is a remote chance that it might send some journalists back to their textbooks to re-learn the definition of "reckless disregard for the truth."

This aging writer has no particular information on the Murphy case. What he does have is the memory of being a front-row spectator to another Dave Wedge story a few years ago.

In that case, it would be hard to say that Wedge exhibited reckless disregard for the truth. As far as I could tell, he showed no regard for the truth at all. He based his series in large part on quotes from a highly prejudiced source, quotes that even that source has since tried to disavow. When that didn't add enough colour to the narrative, Wedge evidently resorted to his imagination. I was a participant in events he described in that series. What I experienced, and what he described, apparently happened in parallel universes.

Both stories had the juice the Herald likes having to boost circulation. The only thing missing is that Wedge didn't trumpet this earlier story with Bill O'Reilly.

We'll see what the appeal has to offer. Seems to me that, for once, Wedge got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The Herald is wasting its money backing this pr---err, reporter.