Hey Crank,
It's not all of WEEI. Dale Arnold, easily the most level headed and thoughtful of the talkers at the station is happy that Manny is sitting out the all star game. Even if the media haven't got a clue, the fans do. Most of us are happy that Manny is putting the Red Sox ahead of correctness. Steve Buckley got the whole Manny's wrong thing started, largely because Shaughnessy wasn't going to write it and nature abhors a vacuum.

Manny was actually criticized one year for playing in the All Star Game after he had missed a few games with some nagging injury. Of course, then, he was putting himself ahead of the team.

The Boston Media is littered with way too many guys who write for any variety of papers (and there are a million of them in the Boston Metro area) and then take cash to go on the multitude (tune into NESN sometime, it's astonishing) of TV and radio shows to talk crap. I get that athletes have to deal with the media but the load that Boston athletes take is unusual and often times absurd. I think Tom Brady and Larry Bird are the only two who earned a pass (David Ortiz might be the 3rd, at least at this point).

I half expect Shaugnessy to write stuff like, "...Edgar Renteria played in the All-Star game last night despite some injuries, bumps and bruises and a stint on the DL. Why can't we get a player like that?"

By the way, good on Dale Arnold. He went to my high school in Maine.