And where is Boston's Professional Media Critic on the largest local media story in months, if not years?

Keeping his powder dry. In response to pleas to discuss Theogate and the role of the press, Mark writes, on his blog:

... I am keeping my powder dry, watching, reporting and preparing to do a major piece on this in next week's (not this week's) dead tree version of the Phoenix. This drama raises a lot of meaty issues and has not played itself out yet. So despite the powerful temptation to weigh in online, I'm going to turn old media and defer to others for now. In fact, the reaction of the blogosphere is part of the story I will ultimately be writing. ...

Now, give him credit: He's an old-school journalist feeling his way around this newfangled blog thing (unlike the oh-so-witty but oh-so-dead-trees teenyboppers over at the Weekly Dig Media Farm, who wouldn't know a blog if it bit them on their asses). But honestly: This is the perfect storm of Boston sports and Boston media (even Boston politics). Can you imagine Boston Sports Media waiting a week to weigh in?

My standard newspaper disclosure.