The Globe’s “Campus Insider” quoted this blog over the weekend on the murky matter of economist Christina Romer’s rejection by Harvard.

…the blogosphere is still buzzing about the mysterious, inexplicable rejection.

“Harvard’s first female president rejects female economist for department which has reputation for being anti-female,” Richard Bradley, cq adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia, writes on his blog, “Shots in the Dark.” “Economist is then chosen for important White House job, making Harvard look silly at best.”

While I appreciate the shout-out, this squib tells you something about the state of the Globe.

One is that there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated reporter for the “Campus Insider” beat anymore, despite the fact that the column’s previous authors, Marcella Bombardieri and Patrick Healy, both broke big stories.

A second is that reporting the comments of one blog—no matter how incredibly great it is—hardly establishes that the “blogosphere is buzzing” about something.

And three, it’s lame to quote a blog to get something in the paper that you couldn’t otherwise print—i.e., an opinion.

Finally, four—why doesn’t the Globe do the reporting and figure out what the hell happened with the Romer tenure denial?

It’s a great story, just waiting for some reporter to pick up the phone….