What's NOT News At the Boston Globe-Democrat

My high school band director was a very successful jazz musician and played with bands like Les Brown. One of the life lessons he taught me was a jazz maxim that "Some of the most important notes are the ones you don't play."

I think of him frequently while reading my daily edition of the Boston Globe-Democrat.

It's hard to imagine another capitol city daily paper that would not run a single editorial about the legislature abandoning the state constitution and refusing to cast a legally required vote on a citizen-initiated petition. That's the kind of story editorial writers live for: Defend democracy! Defend the rule of law! Power to the people!

But from the BG-D? Crickets.

Today, Vladimir Bukovsky has an article at NRO recounting Sen. Ted Kennedy's secret communications with the Soviets during the Cold War, during which time he was openly aiding the Communists to undermine the elected government of the United States. It's not a new story at all. We were talking about it on my radio show weeks ago.

But at the BG-D? Cue the crickets, one more time.

How does a major daily paper ignore a story like this...ABOUT ITS OWN SENATOR? It's not like they have to look for a local hook. Kennedy is the local hook. But they simply refuse to cover it. Astonishing.

At a minimum, the reports of Kennedy's secret cooperation with Soviet Russia reveal that our senior senator was completely wrong about the Soviets, the Reagan Doctrine and the power of freedom. It's also rather disgusting for a liberal like Kennedy to demonstrate such a willingness to accept 100 million people living under tyranny across Eastern Europe, as though there is no moral element to his support for the Soviet spies and gulags.

But beyond that, it's impossible to read Kennedy's offers to help the Soviets defeat the efforts of the West without asking the obvious, common-sense question "When does this become treason?"

Kennedy and one of his trusted aides weren't just offering advice. They also gave the Russians information that was supposed to be for our embassies and representatives negotiating with the Soviets. I don't know if this makes Sen. Kennedy a spy, a traitor or just one of the many dopey liberals who could support Communist tyranny but call the Nicaragua freedom fighters "terrorists."

But as a newspaper reader, it seems to me that these are exactly the kinds of questions one would expect to find people writing about in the Boston Globe-Democrat.