Who killed Boston politics?

Published Nov 07 2007, 05:20 PM by Adam Reilly

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Today's Globe story on the Boston City Council elections blames a bunch of different factors for yesterday's weak turnout: crappy weather, the lack of a preliminary election, a transient population, etc.

How about adding media apathy to the list?

Exhibit A is the invisible candidacy of Carlos Henriquez, who challenged longtime incumbent Chuck Turner in District 7. As far as I can tell, the Globe didn't do a single article about Henriquez; the Herald gave him a column (by Wayne Woodlief) and passing mention in a crime article by Michele McPhee. He did get some nice attention from Boston magazine, but it came immediately before the election. True, Henriquez was a long shot. But the press helped make his race basically invisible.

Exhibit B is John Connolly, Boston's newest at-large councilor. In 2005, the first Globe article mentioning Connolly ran on April 10. This year it came on October 7*. The first piece focused on Connolly, meanwhile, ran on the day of the election--and only because of some ill-advised anonymous attack pieces Connolly sent out the prior week. (The paper's ed page endorsed Connolly on October 30.) Granted, 2005 was a mayoral-election year, with a higher number of viable council challengers (Yoon, White, O'Malley) in the mix. But still.

I could go on, but you get the idea. The slow death of Boston politics isn't all the media's fault. But the press is definitely part of the problem.

*CORRECTION: I initially wrote--incorrectly--that the first article mentioning Connolly ran on election day. Thanks to Mike Pahre of the excellent Brighton Centered blog for catching my error.

Covering Connolly

Herald circulation falls under 200k

5 Comments

• the zak said:

  Get the stenographic public record of our City Council and make it available with the remarks and debate of the Councilors. That way people can extract and comment on the Councilors' words.

  November 7, 2007 7:17 PM

• Adam said:

  Thanks, Mike. I've changed the post to reflect your correction.

  November 8, 2007 12:44 AM

• Melissa said:

  I entirely agree with your post, Adam. It's actually been driving me nuts -- in all of this news coverage about the low turnout, not once has someone mentioned the fact that the news outlets pretty much ignored this race from the get-go.

  I feel like the Globe owes it to the voters to do at least one "profile" piece on each of the candidates running to represent the city at-large. Where else are you supposed to get information that will help you make your choice? The candidates' mail?

  November 8, 2007 3:50 PM

• Aging Cynic said:

  If Henriquez or Connolly had professed an alternative lifestyle during the campaign, they would have gotten a pull-out section of their own.

  November 8, 2007 8:19 PM

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