I don't know much about Rebecca Ostriker, who's been tapped to replace Scott Heller as the Globe's arts editor. (Heller recently decided to decamp* for the New York Times.) But the memo announcing Ostriker's appointment offers reason for optimism--starting with the fact that Ostriker, who'd been Heller's second in command, helped edit the coverage that won critic Mark Feeney a 2008 Pulitzer.

Yesterday, Globe editor Marty Baron sent out a congratulatory note describing a couple gratifying award wins for the paper--including an ASNE prize for the Globe's big multimedia series on Ted Kennedy and a Schaap sportswriting award for Bob Hohler's coverage of the the dysfunctional sports system in Boston's public schools.

Over at Universal Hub, Ron Newman argues that the Globe's latest Amy Bishop scoop--which details the accused murderer's familial relationship to whimsical novelist John Irving--is proof that the paper's coverage of the Bishop affair has jumped the shark, as they say.

That strikes me as overly harsh. After all, in today's Globe, we learned (among other things) that Bishop apparently threatened a police officer with a gun after shooting her brother years ago, which is a pretty remarkable and relevant detail.

Earlier today, I talked up Brian McGrory's piece on embattled Lawrence mayor William Lantigua, while simultaneously urging the Globe to discuss Lantigua's profane tendencies in greater detail.

Now, though, I'm writing about a claim made in McGrory's piece--specifically, his suggestion that his interview with Lantigua was an exclusive.

Globe columnist Brian McGrory's must-read piece on new Lawrence mayor William Lantigua--who promised to reliniquish his Mass. legislative seat during the campaign, but now seems determined not to do so--is a fascinating study in political tone-deafness. I have one question, however. By censoring Lantigua's apparent use of "naughty" language, might the Globe be inadvertently protecting Lantigua from himself (to the extent that's possible)?

As you may have seen, Boston.com whipped up a slideshow titled "Poutin' Peyton" for Super Bowl 44, in which Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts lost to the New Orleans Saints. My first thought: "Hey, good for Boston.com! Way to take advantage of Patriot fans' anti-Manning animosity!" (Or something like that.)

Today, though, I finally checked out the slideshow in question.

Globe arts editor and Phoenix alum Scott Heller will be leaving the paper for the New York Times at the end of this month. The memo sent last week by Globe editor Marty Baron and features editor Doug Most follows; Baron tells me they'll be naming Heller's replacement "in the next few weeks."

-------

To all:

We are sad to report that we will be losing one of our most creative

At this point, it seems, absolutely no one is disputing that Scott Brown was, at first, totally cool with being sworn in to the US Senate on February 11. So what changed?

The letter sent yesterday by Dan Winslow, Brown's attorney, says Brown decided to hustle after learning about "a number of votes scheduled prior to that date."

Yesterday, the Herald's Howie Carr suggested that the Boston Globe had described Scott Brown's 1.1 million supporters as "thugs" and machete-wielding "goons." Now--after trying and failing to figure out the source of Carr's gripe--I have an explanation from Carr himself:

Alex Beam column referred to goons, postings on message board upped the ante to thugs, then thugs with machetes.

There's a sharp column in today's Globe by Scott Ferson, Ted Kennedy's former press secretary, linking Scott Brown's election to the electorate's fetishization of "change" (see: the 2006 midterms, the 2008 presidential race, Scott Brown). Writes Ferson:

The passion for change has replaced political conviction.

The lead story of the moment on FoxNews.com--"BULLIED EVEN IN DEATH?"--deals with nasty comments made the Facebook memorial set up for Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley girl who, apparently, killed herself due after some extremely ugly bullying.

But the Fox story doesn't tell us what those comments were. Similarly, Margery Eagan's column in today's Herald describes the relentless quality of 21st-century bullying, but omits actual comments from Prince's tormentors.

I've knocked Globe metro columnist Kevin Cullen in the past, but his column today--on the journalistic efforts of Manchester, NH Bishop John B. McCormack, who played a shameful role in the Boston Archdiocese's priest-abuse scandal--is great stuff. Here's an excerpt"

McCormack became a bishop and got lucky when prosecutors decided they didn’t have the laws to go after him for putting so many kids in harms’ way.

Update: To her credit, Globe metro editor Jennifer Peter acknowledges that the paper should have explained this story's origins. "The Globe has been vigilant in giving credit to news organizations," she says via email, "and--in hindsight--we wish we had done so in this case as well."

If you read Media Nation, the blog written by my friend and former colleague Dan Kennedy (who's also a assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University and a regular panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press"), you know that Dan was personally responsible for getting would-be US Congressman Bill Hudak--who has some pretty extreme views about President Barack Obama--to retract his claim that he'd been endorsed by US Senator Scott Brown.

Yesterday on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Howie Kurtz and his panelists sized up the media's inattentiveness--until very late in the game--to the possibility of a Scott Brown win in that US Senate that belongs to the people, but was filled by Ted Kennedy for a really long time.

There's plenty of interesting stuff to ponder in the transcript of Kurtz's show, include WTKK-FM host Margery Eagan's theory that, with the Patriots out of the playoffs, Brown was the beneficiary of energy usually devoted to the team.

Ayla Brown's appearance yesterday on behalf of her father, would-be US Senator Scott Brown, is big news: the Herald gives it the cover treatment, and WBUR currently has a story hooked to Ayla's presser front and center on its web site.

The question is, why? Yes, Ayla is an "'American Idol' startlet" (per the Herald).