There isn’t much advantage to pointing these things out, at the local level. Those who get it will see, and those who choose not to see won’t get it. But I do wonder what the keepers of the Providence Journal’s credibility think of reporter Alisha Pina’s assessment that the following comment had sufficient content to include it in her article prior to today’s Labor Board hearing:

Patrick Crowley, an assistant executive director of NEARI, said, “Having had the displeasure of reading this so-called report, it only serves to confirm Mayor Larisa and Mr. Felkner have no idea what they are talking about. Given their bumbling and lack of popular support this isn’t surprising at all.”

As they (might) say in the circus: You can’t blame the clown. The quotation is a twofer for Crowley; he gets to mock and belittle his opposition and further the ailing state newspaper’s decomposition into a rag. Crowley’s entire raison d’etre in the RI scene is to serve as a distraction from the real players and schemes of the union industry in the state. A pity ostensible journalists haven’t the instinct to see through that, perhaps even to the extent of seeking the story behind the jester’s curtain.
Somebody on Fountain St. must understand … right?