There are aspects of this story that I couldn't give two shits less about (the cold release of Francona and subsequently Epstein, Lucky running the Sox, The Revolution/Pats thing), but there are other, more concerning parts of the interview that are absolutely cause for concern.
First off, as much as I love Tito, as much as I respect him, and as much as I appreciate the two World Series titles he brought us, eventually relationships run their course. I feel like, in baseball more than most, with fully guaranteed contracts and the inability to trade a malcontent for draft picks, among other things, a manager can lose his clubhouse suddenly and be incapable of getting it back. And this year, Tito finally lost the clubhouse. Once that happens, a manager needs to go.
What the retarded part of this was, was the media hatchet job after he left. The club line should have been, and should have ALWAYS been, "Terry Francona was the greatest manager the Red Sox have seen in the modern era. His contributions to the team are beyond reproach. But right now, we feel the team needs to head in a different direction, and we need a new voice. We thank Terry for his contributions, and wish him all the best. ", and once the Hohler article came out, they should have a) reaffirmed that, b) completely shredded the relevancy of the marital issues and alleged drug issues, along with c) stating that his commitment to his job was unwavering, and d) if they felt the need to give him the hatchet job on the way out to make it seem like the issues weren't with him, let the fucking locker room problems speak for themself.
There was plenty there that made Tito look less than impressive in his performance this year. In fact, it has the exact opposite effect. If anything, it takes legitimate issues with how the clubhouse was run, takes those out of the microscope, and shifts the focus on to something else entirely, something that, if they planted, they completely misunderstood what the response would be. Because now, everything else is swept under the rug as a multitude of people rush to Tito's defense on this one. If they planted the story, they should have left it out altogether because it's stupid. If they didn't, then they should have repudiated it right away and tried to cut its legs out. That neither one of these happened does not reflect well on the Ownership.
Furthermore, with regard to JWH's appearance on F&M, I don't know how you could listen to the first few minutes of that interview and come away with anything other than "he was rattled" or "he was lying". I know he normally doesn't speak with much authority, but even for him, he was speaking with very little confidence, a lot of anger, and still seemed to act like he was wading through a minefield. That attitude gives F&M the momentum to continue to ask more and more bombastic and instigative questions. When he finally took a deep breath and got away, he was better, but he obviously did not think this through very well.