The New York Observer, the keeper of the moderate left, spent a considerable time defending Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts in its “Off The Record” media column this week. Citing Roberts herself, her SI editor, Terry McDonnell, her book editor, David Hershey, and an ex-colleague Tom Jolly, sports editor at The New York Times, we’re told by the not-so objective Observer’s John Koblin, that she’s an outstanding reporter.

We are also told that once she was armed with proof that Alex Rodriguez’s name was on a supposedly confidential list indicating his steroid use, she flew to Miami, raised hell at the gates of his gated communityat Star Island, then realizing Rodriguez wasn’t home, with her abundant reporting genius, deducted she might catch him working out at the University of Miami, where every paparazzi has stalked him for years. Now that’s reporting.

Roberts stalked, I mean, confronted AROD during his workout and he told her nothing except that “you’ll have to talk to the union.” Selena used the opportunity to tell him she had the info and was going to divulge it in SI. Good for McDonnell who sells magazines. She didn’t mention whether it would be in her book due out in May, but it was reported that there will be a book. Good for Hirshey who sells books.

Basically, objective Observer writer John Koblin went to great lengths to tell us how great a reporter Selena Roberts is. There wasn’t much mention of David Epstein, Robert’s collaborator. Apparently, big stories like this need tag teams. McDonnell called it the biggest news break at SI since he arrived in 2002. It was compared as the biggest story since 1989, when SI broke Pete Rose’s gambling problem. That’s quite a news drought for a powerful sports weekly.

Koblin also put some fluff into his piece by quoting Tom Jolly who in one swoop said SI beat The Times to the story and complimented the “great job” his former colleague did. Koblin also got Roberts to coo about her friends at The Times, especially reporter Mike Schmidt. Good for Koblin who writes about the media.

Rodriguez, probably coached by PR hack Howard Rubinstein or his media team, took the contrition route and bared all to softball pitcher Peter Gammons on ESPN. With his typical cringe-inducing interview technique, AROD referred to Roberts “as a stalker,” which she is, but he apologized to her for his comments later.

All this terriffic reporting, and not one word about how Roberts got the confidential information in the first place. You don’t think that one of the dozens exposed to the “confidential” list, comprised of lawyers, lab technicians, baseball or union people, court officials or law men, picked up a phone and called someone do you? Now that’s reporting.