SPECTRUM WHITEWASH

OK, I'll admit my expectations for the Grand Rapids Press are not exactly lofty, so I am more amused than outraged by its latest indiscretion.

In the Sunday edition of the editorial section of the paper, reporter Kathleen Longcore gave Spectrum Health Corporation a wet kiss in a lengthy article about how swell the merger is that devoured two robust area hospitals to produce the bloated behemoth on the hill. The Press's kid glove treatment of Spectrum should be no surprise, because publisher Dan Gaydou is an ex-chairman, a current board member, and bootlicker of Spectrum's godfather, Rich DeVos. (And yes, I mean "bootlicker" only in the most kindly and praiseworthy sense.)

Of course, the disclosure of this conflict of interest somehow never made it into Ms. Longcore's article.