Trouble for a Globe columnist

No doubt the Herald will make a meal out of this. (For starters, the paper calls Walker a “marquee columnist,” which is utter inflation). Both papers indicate Walker was driving a company car. The Globe also makes clear the car was a loaner. Here’s my question: Why would a columnist need to borrow a car from the pool? Is that typical? Or does he not own a car? Finally, as a public figure, should the Globe cover this with the same gusto as if it were, say, Mo Vaughn?

Mike: If you’re one of the three people who gets his (her) mugshot on the front of City & Region twice a week, you’re a marquee columnist. By definition.

It’s 3 a.m. Who is better suited to keep Adrian Walker off the roads?

At this rate, Walker might wind up part of the “dying Boston” as well.

anon: Like I said, “just about anywhere around Boston.” I’ve worked here long enough to know there just aren’t (unfortunately) a whole lot of black and Latino professionals in this area. You’re talking about a tiny audience.Barnicle/Carr/Ryan readers might be the “dying Boston,” but Walker has done nothing to suggest he’s the heir apparent.

I wish Mr. Walker and his family well as they deal with this.One of the Washington Post’s longtime reporters recently wrote a riveting account of how he was participating in D.C.’s crack cocaine epidemic while he was covering it. Read the discussion at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/01/04/DI2008010403163.html (discussion contains link to the original Washington Post magazine article).

Mike, I’m white, I live in New York and I read Walker. When I lived in Brighton, I didn’t buy the print edition to read any one columnist, but his was a name that stood out for me (along with Goodman and Jacoby). Not suggesting that’s a trend, but his audience is wider than you might imagine.

Fish: That was completely accidental on my part. I always refer to those pix as mugshots — as you can see from the way I worded that particular comment. No knife-twisting intended.

I didn’t think it was intentional but I thought I’d ask. The reader’s comments on Jessica Van Sack’s Herald story on the Walker arrest are pretty interesting. Seems like a lot of Boston firefighters find Walker hypocritical for advocating drug testing for jakes and then allegedly drinking and driving himself in the company car.In checking out Walker’s recent columns on the issue, the one from Feb. 8th raised my eyebrows. In it, Walker advocates for “drug testing” but seems to avoid alcohol testing. He also singles out firefighter Warren Payne, who allegedly had traces of cocaine in his system, but Walker doesn’t mention firefighter Paul Cahill, whose BAC was allegedly three times above the legal limit and arguably more impaired than someone with traces of cocaine in the blood. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of the deceased FF’s mentioned in the media and not the other. Was Walker’s downplaying of alcohol abuse in the BFD an unintended revelation into his own behavior? Seems like it.From Walker’s Feb 8th Globe column:”It is both morally and practically imperative that the department change. When Firefighter Warren Payne died on duty last year with cocaine in his system, his death brought an old issue to light. For the sake of both the public’s safety and that of the firefighters themselves, testing and rigorous enforcement have to become nonnegotiable. And the changes should not stop there.”Glass Houses, stones?Fair or unfair, Walker’s two potential saving graces are his refusing the breathalyzer (meaning the breathalyzer cannot even be mentioned at trial) and the fact that the arrest was made by the MBTA Transit Police. While the MBTA Police have concurrent jurisdiction in communities where the MBTA operates, my experience is that juries and to a slightly lesser extent judges, have a hard time with the MBTA Police conducting traffic enforcement. That by no means is a reflection of my opinion of the MBTA Police, just what I have observed when they take traffic cases to court.Not to second guess the arresting officer, but I also find it odd that he first observed Walker’s potential impairment on Tremont Street (sitting at a flashing yellow light for 30 seconds), then observed more speeding / erratic operation on the Expressway, but he didn’t actually engage Walker until Walker had made it all the way back to the Globe on Morrissey Boulevard. So if Walker hadn’t stopped at the Globe, when if ever, was the MBTA cop going to make the stop? As Howie Carr likes to say, reasonable doubt at a reasonable price.

In response to anon 6:00:00:Are you really “offended” that Dan describes Adrian Walker’s column as “good”?Bob in Peabody

anon 6:00 and Bob in P: Dan neither called Walker a “good columnist” nor his column “good.” He called him a “good guy” and “respected” from whom “you generally learn something new.”Some would call that damning with faint praise.

anon 2:40: Sounds like you want to put the police on trial. You ignore the obvious: He was allegedly driving under the influence. If so, he was a risk, to himself and others. That’s what most of us see, not who he works for, or his talents or his race.