Representatives of both the New York Times and the Boston Globe expressed their firm support today for Globe columnist Alex Beam, who explained in today’s Globe why he had chosen not to report the “sensational and horrible” story of racist remarks by top executives of the Metro newspaper group – a story that, when first reported here on Monday, set off a media firestorm ultimately resulting in the resignation of the Metro executives and a host of other moves by the embattled Swedish multinational.

While refusing to comment on Beam’s decision not to report the story – which the Globe columnist said he made after considering both “ethical” and ‘taste” issues — Globe editor Martin Baron characterized Beam as “a terrific columnist.” Baron added that there were be no repercussions for Beam as a result of his decision not to report on the Metro racism. Instead, Baron agreed that it would be “business as usual” for Beam and the Globe in the future.

Speaking for The New York Times Company, Catherine Mathis said, “We thought Alex explained the situation very well.” Mathis declined once again my request to interview Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., or to answer other questions about continued community calls in both New York and Boston for the Times Company to re-evaluate its pending multi-million dollar deal to partner with Metro on its Boston daily.

As the Globe also reported today, the United States Justice department is now looking at a Boston Herald complaint aimed at halting the Times acquisition of a minority share of the Metro Boston newspaper on antitrust grounds, another complicating factor that should keep this deal in limbo – and in the news – for some time to come, particularly given the ‘newspaper’ war that has already broken out in between the Globe and Herald in Boston, and is now giving signs of spreading to New York, the nation’s largest media market, where the New York Post has been giving the Metro racism story daily play – and where the racist Swedish multinational Metro also publishes a free tabloid daily that is further complicating matters for the Post, already locked in a duel-to-the-death with the New York Daily News.