POLITICS, as they say, makes strange bedfellows. Apparently, so does editorializing.
Rachelle Cohen, the longtime editorial page editor at the Boston Herald, whose right-of-center voice stood in stark contrast to the progressive leanings of the Boston Globe, is now a “contributing member” of her old rival’s editorial board.
Cohen, who left the tabloid in March after it was bought out of bankruptcy by Digital First, almost immediatetly began writing a column for the oped pages of the Globe on a semi-regular basis. Her somewhat cumbersome tagline initially identified her as a consultant among many other things.
But Boston University professor John Carroll, who writes the It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town blog, reported on Friday that Cohen’s tagline now reads that she is “a contributing member of the Globe’s editorial board.”
In an email to CommonWealth, Globe editorial page editor Ellen Clegg confirmed Cohen, along with former Startup Institute CEO Diane Hessan, is a vocal presence in editorial board meetings. Clegg said Cohen doesn’t have an office at the paper but comes in for meetings and participates remotely in many discussions.
“I’ve always admired Shelly professionally, for her knowledge of Boston, for her reporting chops, and for her sharp, fact-based arguments,” Clegg wrote. “She deepens our discussions, and that’s what we want in the room: diverse points of view and passionate debate. No bowtie needed.”