But that's nothing new--or nothing unique to Silber. Weld, as well as Sen. John F. Kerry and his Republican challenger James W. Rappaport, suffered the same fate at the hands of the media. Of course, Kerry and Rappaport brought it on themselves--lobbing political grenades at one another throughout their campaign--as when Rappaport accused Kerry of associating with "known" terrorist Guillermo Ungo, and when Kerry poked fun at Rappaport's deep campaign coffers.

But Silber, given mutiple opportunities to raise the level of reasoned discourse, set aside the chance for the sake of political expediency. In the second televised debate, for instance, Silber devoted three of his five turns to drill Weld on his support of the increasingly-unpopular Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT) petition, instead of using the time to challenge his rival on his education plans, his environmental initiatives or his civil rights record. By harping on one issue in order to squeeze all the political juice out of it, Silber insulted voters who were waiting (as he himself claimed to be) for a comprehensive look at the issues.

Any Silber partisan who claims the press ignored the Democratic candidate's position on civil rights, health care and education forgets that the candidate did so himself.

And as for Silber's environmental policy, well, there just wasn't one. You read that here--in one of the many papers despised by Silber staffers and supporters--several weeks ago.

SOME in the media would even contend, justifiably, that the Silber people have it all backwards. The candidate prided himself on the bluntness of his message, the disingenuity with which he attacked such problems as crime (refusing to give a speech in Dorcester to "a bunch of crack addicts") and health care (disputing the need for lengthy and fruitless hospital stays for the elderly) and the feminist movement (blaming working women for leading to the disruption of family unity).

But without the media, his frankness would never have reached the voters. He wanted to reap the benefits of his "straight shooting" style--but only if that reward was positive. If it impaired him, then the media was distorting his message.

Most Silber partisans also forget that without the media, their candidate would never have made it as far as he did. Silber was in danger of not receiving the requisite 15 percent of the votes at last June's Democratic state convention, but his high media image undoubtedly put him over the edge. Without that 15 percent, he would have gone the way of Alwin E. Hopfmann, an obscure bookstore owner who challenged U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1982, but could not come up with the necessary votes at the convention.

But there's no mistaking--John Silber has made more of an impression on state politics than Hopfmann ever did, and probably ever will.