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Beacon Hill Confidential

There's an interesting contrast between two stories in today's Globe and Herald.

Both deal with the indictment yesterday of Beacon Hill resident Earl McBride Jr., for mailing threatening communications to unnamed Beacon Hill restauranteur. These communications were pretty creepy. Here's how Globe reporter Shelly Murphy describes them:
The threatening letters arrived throughout 2006 and 2007 at two of Beacon Hill's most popular restaurants. They came with photos of gun-toting men and taunting messages for the owner of both eateries, a successful businesswoman who was born in Iran, came to the United States decades ago, and is an American citizen.
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A photograph of an Israeli soldier brandishing a machine gun was tucked inside one letter, while another contained an image of actor Dustin Hoffman, lifted from the 1976 movie thriller "Marathon Man," pointing a gun directly at the viewer.

"See you at the Taj!" the writer taunted in a letter sent last June, two days before the owner was to present food from her two eateries at Taste of Beacon Hill, a local restaurant fair hosted by the Taj Boston Hotel.

Both papers say that the woman, who was identified by her initials in the indictment, asked them not to name her. But here's the catch: while the Globe doesn't name her restaurants, the Herald does. They're Lala Rokh and Bin 26 Enoteca. And when you Google "Lala Rokh Bin 26 Enoteca," the first thing you come up with is...the woman's name.

Honestly, I don't know which paper got it right. With its multiple references to an anonymous woman's anonymous restaurants, the Globe story feels excessively vague. On the other hand, whatever protection the Herald provided by not publishing the woman's name was definitely undercut by ID'ing her establishments.

One final twist: while the Globe article identifies the woman as a Muslim, the Herald only says she's Iranian.

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2 Comments

  • pomsmith said:

    In the Herald's defense, I read your Globe excerpt and easily IDd the restaurateur, as will have anyone else with even a cursory familiarity with the Boston dining scene. Seriously, how many Iranian-born women own two popular restaurants--in Beacon Hill? I mean, it could only be more obvious if there were an Iranian restaurant IN Beacon Hi--<I>d'oh</I>! So, where exactly is the line? What constitutes an acceptable degree of (non)identification?
    May 2, 2008 12:57 PM
  • Observer said:

    It's not like Azita Bina-Seibel jealously guards her privacy. (If there's not much subtlety to the Herald or Globe, there's even less to encouraging your readers to Google the woman, and then telling them which specific search terms to enter to find her name. If you want to name her, you should do so - and if you think she shouldn't be named, this entire post was innappropriate.) Last year, she opened her home for an extensive spread in the NY Times' Real Estate section, that included a remarkable amount of personal detail and an array of photos. Since the stories say the letters started arriving in November 2006, she did this at a time when she was already been harassed and stalked. I have the greatest sympathy for Ms. Bina-Seibel, and for the ordeal to which she's been subjected, through no fault of her own. But I just have a hard time buying the argument that someone who has pursued the spotlight, and opened her private residence and personal habits to the media, is entitled to the courtesies customarily extended to private citizens, but not to celebrities, in cases such as these.
    May 5, 2008 3:06 PM

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