No Big Dig News Is Not Necessarily Good News

First, the Globe gave us the stunning revelation that Big Dig contractors got early warning that those ceiling panels might fall and kill someone, in the form of a memo from an engineer employed by sub-contractor John Keaveney. Then last week, we found out that actually, that 1999 memo was probably a self-aggrandizing hoax from the guy who claimed to have written it. Naturally, that was the cue for the Herald to go into full whoop-ass mode on the Globe, as is surely fitting in our competitive two-paper town. (The Globe also published a half-hearted and unsatisfying mea culpa.) But putting aside all the journalistic tough talk, what the hell is new? Even though it is probably innocent of callously ignoring a memo that might have saved a woman's life, Modern Continental still installed the ceiling that killed Milena Del Valle, the price tag for the Big Dig is still $15 billion, and it still takes forever to get to the airport. And the only thing close to a mention in either of the papers today is that Governor Romney is on his way back from a meeting of the National Governors Association in South Carolina, where he gave a speech on how states respond to emergencies. Oh, the irony.