Pulp

Frankly, it was a pleasure to see the Real Paper stick its neck out as it did in this week's account of Cambridge's health inspectors entitled "Caution: Cambridge's Food Inspectors May Be Hazardous to Your Health."

The story is a tough one charging several health inspectors with all the usually undetectable forms of corruption including favoritism and out-and-out bribery.

The opening account of an alleged assault by a health inspector while touring Fred's Ice Cream up on Mass Ave is strong, almost in-credible stuff.

But there is a lot more. The inspectors apparently went to ridiculous and illegal extremes to hassle the owners of the Ye Old Grist Mill, Coffee Connection and the Cambridge Food Coop.

The reporter, Alvin Swirsky, has even got Tommy Stephanian of Tommy's Lunch fame possibly supplying pay-offs to health inspectors.

Considering the frequency with which this type of corruption occurs, it's a wonder that more papers don't attempt to write stories about it. The Real Paper's strong account may serve as some sort of encouragement for more of these stories.

At the other end of the integrity scale, however, in the same issue, the Real Paper has decided to hype an advertiser on the front page.

On the upper-left-hand corner of the front page there is a slanted banner reading "Elton John T-Shirt Iron-On, Page 7."

But lo and behold, the reader finds not just an iron-on on page 7 but a WRKO advertisement that comes with it. The iron-on is really an ad for WRKO.

I wonder if the Real Paper really needs to sell its ads surreptitiously on the front page.