It's sad when timidity wins out. Thus it seems with East Side Monthly, the Providence shopper pub. Apparently to make sure that the pub can safely deal with Buddy Cianci if he is elected mayor of Providence,  the monthly condemns The Providence Journal for ''vitriolic, over-the-top Buddy bashing'' that, East Side Monthly says "has destroyed any possibility of anyone seeing their reporting as useful or objective.''

Oh, come on. We can understand that East Side Monthly would want to curry favor with this tough guy, but what The Journal has done is simply report the facts of just how corrupt Cianci is -- with information from people in all walks of city and state life,  most notably  former federal prosecutors.

As  Chico Marx put it:

"Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"

--- Robert Whitcomb