One of the recurring questions from Massachusetts readers is why the Boston Globe’s coverage of the Senate race in that state is so . . . good, and reasonable, and fair, and perhaps even laudatory to Republican Scott Brown lately. It defies their expectations; here’s the beginning of a profile of Brown from today:

At the end of his junior year at Tufts University, Scott P. Brown did not take a typical summer job like many of his classmates. Instead, he spent two months in Army basic training at Fort Dix, N.J., after joining the Massachusetts National Guard.
Three decades later, Brown is a lieutenant colonel in the Guard, a state senator from Wrentham, and the Republican nominee in the Jan. 19 special election for US Senate.
Brown’s years as a citizen-soldier inform many aspects of his personal and political ethic: the value of discipline and physical fitness, his beliefs about national security, war, and peace, and his priorities in the Legislature.

Brian Maloney expects it will change.

Back in my wire-service days, I wrote for the Globe (mostly covering federal regulations on whales and fishing; I called it “the seafood beat”), and found the reporting staff’s work to be much fairer and better than most conservatives thought; it was the columnists and editorial board who were the predictable, down-the-line liberals.

One particular point of irritation in yesterday’s coverage was the sense that Coakley is dodging the press. Like Maloney, I don’t doubt that the Globe will eventually endorse her. But the folks covering the race might just find Brown a more accessible and likeable candidate, giving them more to work with and write about . . .