Discrimination litigation: The case of Larry Grard, the veteran reporter fired from the Morning Sentinel in Waterville last November, has taken on a new dimension.

The year of living delusionally: The April issue of The Bollard, a Portland monthly newspaper, has a comprehensive look at the first year (almost) of MaineToday Media’s ownership of the Portland Press Herald. (The article is not yet online, but should be by Tuesday at www.thebollard.com.)

Bad bet: MaineToday Media State House reporter Ethan Wilensky-Lanford usually covers simple stories – public hearings, press conferences, news releases – where his interpretive skills aren’t overly taxed. Somebody says one thing. Somebody else says another. Slap it together in reverse-pyramid form, and call it a day.

But as legislative sessions wind down, the issues tend to become more complicated, and that seems to be taxing Wilensky-Lanford’s journalistic abilities to their limit.

In just over two months, Maine voters will be asked to pick the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor. There are sizable fields for both parties – five Democrats and seven GOP candidates have qualified for the ballot – so you’d think the state’s news media would already be hard at work turning out in-depth profiles of each Blaine House hopeful’s background and positions.

Just about everyone wants to know how the new federal health-care law is going to change things. The answer from the Maine news media:

Beats us.

Contrary to the item I posted yesterday, the MaineToday Media Web site did not bear the brunt of the extensive layoffs in the latest round of cutbacks at the company that owns the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.

Odd exit: This has happened at least twice before, so I’m going to try not to get too worked up, but pseudonymous blogger Thomas Cushing Munjoy has announced he’s quitting again.

On March 16, he posted his (allegedly) final blog: “I will not be doing this any longer. Life is so odd.”

The Maine Sunday Telegram seems to spiraling out of control.

On March 14, the paper offered up an odd assortment of editorially questionable decisions, any of which would have been troubling by itself. But taken together, they seem to indicate that whatever thinking is going on in the executive offices of MaineToday Media, the Telegram’s owner, it has little to do with producing quality journalism.

Let’s start with the front page.

Claims and disclaimers: In an earlier posting, I praised the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting for its coverage of Republican gubernatorial candidate Les Otten’s business dealings and its promise to do similar in-depth inquiries into the backgrounds of all the major Blaine House contenders.