Today's Frank Rich column on Dick Cheney's recent PR offensive is a must-read for two reasons. First, Rich offers some apt criticism of the way most of the media framed Cheney's efforts:

The déjà vu in the news media was more chilling. Rather than vet the substance of Cheney’s fulmination, talking heads instead hyped the split-screen “dueling speeches” gimmick of the back-to-back Obama-Cheney scheduling.

That group includes 14-24 year olds who "lack basic skills"; are parents or are about to become parents; have dropped out of school; are homeless; didn't grow up speaking English; didn't grow up in this country; or have run away from home.

Oh yeah--youth with legal problems fit the bill, too.

Howie Carr actually doesn't seem to mind the fact that the program panned on the Herald's front page--a federally funded program for kids of families currently linked to the Department of Transitional Assistance--helps low-income people.

As I noted yesterday, the relevation in this week's New Yorker that NYT columnist Tom Friedman has an unlimited travel budget has been seized upon by Globe reporter Brian Mooney, who's passionately opposed to the Times Co.'s request for major concessions from the Globe's unions.

In using the New Yorker piece to continue making his case, though, Mooney seems to have erred on a significant detail.

In this month's Boston magazine, Jason Schwartz has what will probably be the definitive profile of Dan Totten, the embattled head of the Boston Newspaper Guild.

The whole piece is worth a read--but I was most interested in the lede. In it, Schwarz has Totten arguing, emphatically, that the Guild's members shouldn't vote for the Times Co.

It's possible. Lawrence Wright's profile of Carlos Slim Helu tells us that star New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has unlimited travel expenses, and never really has to explain what he's going to write about before he hits the road. It also quotes Friedman on the future of the news business, saying that, eventually, “It’s going to be us and the BBC and the Wall Street Journal and not a lot more.

Earlier today I pointed readers to a Jeffrey Rosen piece that raised questions about whether readers should cheer Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Soon after, a reader pointed me to Glenn Greenwald's rather withering response to Rosen's column. And I was sufficiently chagrined to have linked to Rosen's piece without discussing his critics and their objections that I've now removed the original post.

In which I argue that the more sober treatments of Aiden Quinn's trans status were entirely appropriate, despite some of the more absurd and incendiary commentary they engendered.

Also, a correction--in the piece, I refer to Michele McPhee's FOIA request to the MBTA. As a sharp-eyed reader quickly noted, McPhee actually made a request under the Mass.

Dear David, et al.--

I understand that John McPhee is a nonfiction legend. I also understand that he really likes lacrosse. But after publishing McPhee's paean to the game earlier this year, did you really need to have him tackle the subject again--just two months later--in a piece that almost certainly wouldn't be gracing your pages if it didn't carry McPhee's byline?

Thanks,

Adam Reilly

With all due respect, what the fuck is Katherine L. Cohen talking about? Boston is a great college town because--wait for it--it has "reasonably priced tourist attractions"? Amherst gets the nod because it's "known to have concerts and a division I athletic program"?!?

Montreal is in Canada, for God's sake! And Washington DC is a political town, not a college town! What about Chapel Hill, or Charlottesville, or Athens or Madison or Ann Arbor or Bloomington or Austin?

The New York Times has a new, full-screen photo blog called "Lens"--and it might not exist without Boston.com's "The Big Picture." From a write-up in Photo District News:

Lens draws some inspiration from The Big Picture a photo blog published by Boston.com, which is also owned by The New York Times Company. The Big Picture pioneered a wide-screen layout that took advantage of improving resolutions of computer screens.

Back in March 2008, when Marty Baron revamped the leadership of the Globe's newsroom following some high-profile departures, he tapped Ellen Clegg as the paper's deputy managing editor for news operations.

Now Clegg is leaving for a post at the Broad Institute. Baron's memo follows; the first line suggests that he's taking her exit pretty hard.

The fancy insert in today's paper has the official numbers: effective June 1, you'll pay $12.25 for seven days of Globe home delivery and $8 for Thursday-Sunday. No change for Sunday only.

I've been a seven-day subscriber. Not sure I'll keep up at that price.

Also, the note in the insert from publisher Steve Ainsley says the Globe "broke [the] news" of the financial pressures facing The Globe in early April.

In his latest offering, Globe metro columnist Kevin Cullen uses the death of Dom DiMaggio and the probable steroid use of Manny Ramirez to argue, basically, that America is on the skids, dammit!

Baseball is more than our national pastime. It is a reflection of what we are as a people. And right now the reflection isn't very pretty.