A real Johnson

It's a small world. My brother and I were discussing a recent incident in which Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson let his personal politics drive him into a frenzy -- politics, and antipathy to Mormons in general, and Mitt Romney in particular. Rather typical for today's reporter, Johnson has gone beyond wearing these attitudes on his sleeve and more or less flies them as standards with a complete color guard and drum and bugle corps. 

Bro is a strong Romney supporter. I'm undecided but like Mitt well enough. He was a decent governor for my hard-to-govern state, a good businessman, and is a genuinely nice guy; I think without naming names we could do worse for president (and the cynic in me says we probably will). Now, Bro and I also understand that being a reporter means you still have personal beliefs and attitudes and they do make it into your writing (which you admit if you're honest). We've both been pro journalists ourselves, writing daily news and features, so we know how it is. 

Which brings us back to Glen Johnson. "I worked with him... at the Lowell Sun!" Bro remembers. "He was a complete jerk even then!" 

Now, at the time Bro was a doctrinaire liberal, which meant he fit in perfectly with the the newsroom, although not so much with the then-publisher, a conservative (the paper's since been sold to someone... Providence Journal?). The Sun was, and as far as I know is, a good paper with its fingers on the pulse of the small city of Lowell and the surrounding communities. It was, Bro says, "not where you'd go for your first reporting job. It was a big step up." Many of the staffers went on to greater things, including Bro, who is CEO of a software company, and Johnson, who is now filling in for AP's Puliizer Prize winning Bilal Hussein, who's unavailable. 

The story of Bro's long trail from Ted-worshipping unemployed (and unwashed) lefty to Mitt-boosting, taxpaying, employee-hiring family man is an interesting one, but to me the story of how Glen Johnson hasn't grown up is even more interesting. 

"He was a pompous, immature, self-centered jerk," Bro remembers (I may have cleaned up his language a hair -- I'm trying to write a family-friendly blog). Watching Johnson lose his grip with Mitt Romney -- and even with non-reporter citizens at a Romney rally -- indicates that in the intervening years, Johnson has grown old without visibly growing up. He hasn't changed a bit, is Bro's verdict. 

Except in one way. He's "definitely the same Glen Johnson I used to know in Lowell," Bro emails after seeing a current picture. "But he's gotten a lot fatter."