ProJo on Patrick Kennedy

The ProJo has produced a few solid pieces on the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, most notably Washington bureau chief John Mulligan's obituary. The paper has written precious little, though, on Patrick Kennedy in the wake of his father's death.

A New York Times story on Senator Kennedy's funeral that ran on the front page of the ProJo Sunday mentioned Patrick Kennedy's eulogy in passing. But the paper has written nothing of its own on perhaps the most high-profile speech of the Congressman's career - a telling talk that both pointed to his vulnerability and suggested the potential for a higher form of rhetoric from a sometimes awkward speaker.

More broadly, this moment calls for a big look at Patrick Kennedy's political inheritance and future course. This is a chance for an analytic journalism that, as I mentioned in my cover story on the ProJo last week, is appearing more and more in the paper these days but is still too infrequent.

The ProJo, like all newspapers, has been diminished by layoffs and buyouts. But a forced shake-up has provided an opportunity for a re-imagination. An opportunity sometimes siezed and sometimes not.