Esta semana, I size up what the Atlantic's relocation to Washington is doing to the magazine's character.

10/31/2007 9:09:28 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

If Boston were a one-newspaper town, Mayor Tom Menino might be basking in heroic martyrdom right now. Here's how the Globe describes his stumble and near-drop of the World Series trophy yesterday:

As he walked off a stage set up at the park, Menino, still holding the prize, failed to see the stairs that were obscured by the golden trophy. He tripped and injured his leg....

Luckily, the trophy did not hit the ground during the mayor's mishap.

"He saved the trophy," Joyce said [emph. added]. "He was more concerned about the trophy than himself."

But wait. The Herald suggests things may not be that simple:

An alert radio producer standing nearby says he caught the mayor, who apparently missed a step on the stairs, and helped save Menino from dropping the trophy in front of a sea of cameras.

“I see the mayor coming down and next thing I know, the mayor is in my arms as I’m trying to hold him back up,” said James Stewart, a producer for WEEI 850 AM’s “Dale and Holley Show.”

Here's a possible solution: Menino gets partial credit for saving the trophy by clinging to it as he careened toward the ground, and Stewart gets partial credit for saving both the trophy (which could have been damaged if the fall continued unabated) and Menino (who escaped with just a hyperextended knee). Would that make everybody happy?

10/31/2007 10:50:19 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

There's plenty to like about this Boston magazine story on the changing South End: it takes gentrification seriously, mourns the passing of Tim's Tavern, and doesn't use the phrase "SoWa" once.

That said, it's worth noting that the author thinks the South End sucks because it's filling up with Boston magazine's target audience. In his words:

[T]he scene is distinctly white, straight, suburban (or buying there soon), and likelier to be sporting khakis, golf shirts, and sweater sets than skinny jeans, indie rock tees, and body art. These are people who do well enough to pay $11 for a cocktail without blinking, and would not look out of place at Back Bay hangouts like Clerys or Abe & Louie's.

Yes, those are your readers.

Myself, I'd give the loss of racial and economic diversity more weight than the dearth of hipsters. But then, I don't have any skinny jeans.

10/30/2007 2:41:24 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [2] |  

I'm a day late to this, but compared to the Globe I'm a model of punctuality.

Yesterday's lead Globe editorial was an interesting piece of work. On the face of it, the piece--titled "What Hillary said"--righteously set the record straight about a comment Hillary Clinton made during an interview with the Globe editorial board. The comment in question was this: "I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all." In using this line to attack Clinton, the Globe said, Rudy Giuliani and the Republican National Committee were guilty of "cheap political distortions."

What you might not have grasped, unless you read the editorial closely, was that the Globe apparently misquoted Clinton. Here, according to yesterday's editorial, is Clinton's comment as it was actually delivered to the Globe:

I have a million ideas. I can't do all of them. I happen to think in running a disciplined campaign--especially when it comes to fiscal responsibility, which is what I'm trying to do--everything I propose I have to pay for. You know, you go to my website, you'll see what I would use to pay for what I've proposed. So I've got a lot of ideas, I just obviously can't propose them all. I can't afford them all. The country can't afford them all. [emph. added]

And here's how the paper initially quoted Clinton--back on October 11 (!):

Clinton recently floated the idea of issuing a $5,000 bond to each baby born in the United States to help pay for college and a first home, but it immediately inspired Republican ridicule and she quickly said she would not implement the proposal.

She defended that decision yesterday, saying she is focusing on proposals with more political support and she is not formally proposing anything she can't fund without increasing the deficit: "I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all."

Did I mention that the Globe's write-up of Clinton's ed board was published on October 11?!?

It's pretty clear, from the language the Globe originally used, that Clinton didn't tell the Globe ed board she'd be a profligate president. But not as clear as it might have been--especially with that "not formally proposing" phrase ominously floating around.

Some journalists use ellipses when they're condensing quotes; others don't. But a good rule of thumb--ellipses or no--is to make sure that the condensed quote accurately reflects the spirit of the original. That didn't happen here; instead, the Globe diluted Clinton's emphasis on fiscally responsible spending and hand-crafted a laugh line for the GOP.

If I were Clinton, I'd be awfully pissed that the Globe got it wrong--and that the paper took two weeks to correct itself.

10/29/2007 2:48:18 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [3] |  

Plus, Page Six editor Richard Johnson's Teflon coating. Both right here.

10/25/2007 11:31:04 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [0] |  

"Today, he is to Red Sox baseball what Picasso was to a blank canvass, what George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are to taking movie treatments from script to screen."

That's occasional Herald columnist Mike Barnicle on Dr. Charles Steinberg, Red Sox PR czar and former dentist.

I'll buy that Steinberg is good at his job. But the Picasso thing seems a bit excessive.

10/24/2007 10:57:21 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [3] |  

The Globe's write-up of Mitt Romney's Obama/Osama error starts by endorsing Romney camp's explanation--i.e., it was an innocent mistake:

In an apparent slip of the tongue on the campaign trail yesterday, Mitt Romney mixed up the names of Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. [emph. added]

Question is, does Romney really deserve the benefit of the doubt? After all, as TMZ.com demonstrated back in July, Romney seems to get a kick out of conflating Obama and Bin Laden:



Before conservative readers rush to point out that, as the Globe mentions, Ted Kennedy made a similar mistake in '05, let me note two big differences: unlike Romney, Kennedy started with the wrong name and then got it right. Romney did the opposite. What's more, Kennedy has a history with this kind of stuff (see #90), while Mitt tends to be a pretty good speaker.

10/24/2007 10:30:18 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [0] |  

From Globe reporter Donovan Slack's front-page analysis of the Boston Fire Department's immutability:

[Boston Mayor Tom] Menino said his level of determination to take on the powerful [firefighters'] union and demand wholesale change has diminished over the years, preventing the "real overhaul" he has promised repeatedly since he took office.

"In all practicality, it's very difficult to achieve," Menino said in an interview last week. "You want to see this happen, but you [come] to understand there are other things that can be done much easier." [emph. added]

Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but did Mayor Menino just come out in favor of term limits?

10/22/2007 4:40:13 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [3] |  

Journalists everywhere can learn a couple valuable lessons from Jon Keller's rough week.

First: if you have a conflict of interest--like, say, a child working for a campaign you're covering--disclose it early and emphatically, preferrably in your primary medium. And don't be flip about it.

Second: attribute whenever possible, so no one accuses you of trying to pass someone else's work off as your own.

Having said that, I agree with Dan Kennedy that the flap over lack of attribution in The Bluest State seems overblown. Obviously, the book should have had footnotes. But Dan's right: if you read it, you know that Keller isn't trying to pretend that every quote comes from an interview he did.

What Dan misses--and what the Herald's Jessica Heslam missed, too--is that there is a quote-classification system at work in Keller's book, albeit an informal one. The quotes Keller got himself are flagged pretty clearly. They're usually accompanied by "says" or another present-tense verb. Sometimes Keller adds you-are-there color; sometimes he inserts himself into the action (" 'Our favorite time is being with the kids,' Romney confides to me"). In contrast, the quotes taken from other sources get "said" or a past-tense equivalent. Sometimes, Keller explicitly indicates that someone else got the quote ("...Rivers told an interviewer the summer his house was shot up"). Usually he doesn't.

True, the system could be clearer. But it's a real reach to accuse Keller of bad faith here.

10/18/2007 11:13:45 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [11] |  

Squaring the Globe asks an interesting question: when Governor Deval Patrick weighs in on the foreclosure crisis, shouldn't the Globe note that he used to be an exceedingly well-compensated board member of the parent company of sketchy lender Ameriquest?

I'd say so--especially given that an ill-advised call on Ameriquest's behalf that figured prominently in Patrick's early-term stumbles. (For the record, the Globe broke that particular story.)

I'd also point out that the Globe isn't the only local media outlet to omit this rather significant detail. Yesterday, a WBUR story on a congressional hearing on foreclosures that was held in Roxbury earlier this week failed to mention Patrick's Ameriquest ties. But it did include this snippet:

REPORTER: Boston Mayor Tom Menino said he is angry at unscrupulous lenders who took advantage of unwitting borrowers:

MENINO: These folks who go out and sell these mortgages to these individuals. With blue notes, low down payment, no interest, five years later, they get whacked.

REPORTER: Now they're foreclosing, or on the verge of it. Governor Deval Patrick outlined some of his administration's efforts to help those. Still, the governor calls the situation complex, and he's got a new proposal, that he wants to detail later this week. [emph. added]

Right there, where Menino waxes indignant and Patrick says the situation is "complex"? That's where we need a little reminder.

10/17/2007 4:22:28 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [2] |  

In his magisterial profile of Billy Bulger in this month's Boston magazine, Joe Keohane reports, as an aside, that Mike Barnicle still thinks the Jack Welch-Jack Connors consortium is going to end up owning the Globe. "Wait’ll we buy it," Barnicle tells Bulger. "We’re gonna buy it!"

Since Barnicle is probably wrong, here's another idea: what if the Welch-Connors group just started their own new online daily? Today, Jim Romenesko links to a press release from one such outfit, MinnPost.com, that's slated to launch in Minnesota this November. What's really striking about MinnPost.com is the low, low startup cost: according to the release, $1.2 million was enough to get this thing going--and $850k of that came from four "founding families." The staff, apparently, will be a hybrid of full-timers and contributors with other jobs. In the former category, editor and CEO Joel Kramer is a former editor of the Star-Tribune; in the latter, Steve Aschburner--another Star Tribune alum, who'll presumably be covering the Minnesota Timberwolves--currently writes for SportsIllustrated.com. And, as the press release notes, the roster of contributors includes two Pulitzer winners.

How about it, Mike and Jack and Jack (and Joe)? True, you wouldn't get the thrill of owning your hometown paper of record, and this model would involve running your new daily as a nonprofit (!). Of course, if making money was your primary goal, you probably wouldn't be thinking about buying a newspaper. This way, you'd get to build your own brand from scratch. You'd also save about half a billion bucks. Think it over.

10/16/2007 1:20:19 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

First off, a confession--I don't like T-Radio. I'll never like it. It's intrusive and asinine and filled me with rage in the two minutes I heard it today at North Station.

Now that that's out of the way, compare and contrast:

--"[MBTA general manager Dan] Grabauskas said he does not know how much profit, if any, the MBTA would reap in the deal."--from today's Globe write-up on T-Radio's Boston debut.

--"Most importantly, as a Pyramid Partner you will share in the revenue generated by the advertisements which we sell."--from the Web site of Pyramid Radio, the Boston-based company behind T-Radio.

If this is a money-making proposition for the T, I'm guessing that T-Radio won't be going anywhere, even if there's a deluge of complaints at MBTA.com.

More* reason for cynicism: according to the T's own press release, the primary measure of rider feedback won't be comments left at MBTA.com. It'll be "Pyramid work[ing] with a team of Emerson students to survey T-customers [sic] at the three stations on whether they like the overall concept, and if so, which features they like the best and which ones they like least."

Get used to it, everyone.

*NOTE: I'd initially offered the non-functionality of the MBTA's online feedback mechanism as Reason #1 for more cynicism--but I was wrong! Thanks to Universal Hub, I know that it's up and running (though you'd never know that from MBTA.com's front page.) Still, I'm pretty sure we're screwed.

10/11/2007 4:04:47 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [0] |  

In this week's paper, I argue that the press paved the way for the anti-press backlash that followed last week's coverage of Paul Cahill and Warren Payne's autopsies.

10/11/2007 11:08:58 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

A few days ago, I waxed indignant over NECN's decision to boot Blue Mass. Group from a 5th District congressional debate at the request of Jim Ogonowski's campaign. The flap, I said, "makes Ogonowski look bad and NECN look worse."

That'll teach me not to blog while drinking.

Based on what I've learned since, NECN didn't have much of a choice. Apparently, an Ogonowski staffer first complained about the presence of the BMG guys at about 6:58--two minutes before the debate began--and threatened to pack the studio with Ogonowski partisans if the BMG-ers were allowed to stay put. (Reporters from the Globe and Lowell Sun were also in the room at the time.) The conversation continued until roughly 6:59, at which point the BMG-ers were told they had to watch in NECN's executive conference room instead. And so they did.

I got this one wrong. NECN did what it had to do; after all, its mission was broadcasting the debate. As for the Ogonowski camp.... Yes, the BMG guys are fervent Niki* Tsongas partisans. I understand why Ogo might have been piqued by their presence. But if he makes it to Washington, he's going to meet a lot more commentators he disagrees with--and he won't just be able to make them leave the room.

*Not Nikki, as I initially wrote. That's Prince's spelling.

10/10/2007 4:25:05 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [2] |  

It's easy, when you read stuff like today's Howie Carr column on Boston City Councilor Dapper O'Neil, to pine for the days when Boston politics wasn't the snoozefest it is today.

Then again, some of the characters who used to make Boston politics so interesting were pretty problematic. Like, say, Dapper O'Neil.

Howie reminds us that O'Neil carried a gun, hated liberals, made fun of Maura Hennigan, and disliked Rosaria Salerno. But other parts of O'Neil's past should be remembered, too. Such as:

June 1992: O'Neil was caught on camera lamenting all the Vietnamese businesses in Fields Corner during the Dorchester Day Parade. "I just passed up there. I thought I was in Saigon, for Chrissakes," he told a Boston Police Department official, according to the Globe. "It makes you sick, for Chrissakes."

December 1993: In the council's final session of the year, O'Neil (according to the Herald) "[t]wice publicly offered to marry Councilor Rosaria Salerno; [a]ngrily threatened a staffer of Councilor David Scondras because he smiled while O'Neil was speaking; [s]creamed at citizens in the audience who applauded passage of the controversial domestic partnership ordinance, which O'Neil opposed; [s]houted at reporters who questioned O'Neil's request that councilors meet privately, in possible violation of the state Open Meeting Law, to discuss a vote at the podium; [r]idiculed a reporter who was attempting to leave the council chamber."

February 1995: After being accused of sexual harrassment by a City Hall employee, O'Neil tried unsuccessfully to speak with the woman in question. Afterward, the Globe reported, "he reportedly called her names, including a lesbian slur, according to sources who heard him. O'Neil also reportedly telephoned her and threatened to have her job excised from the budget, according to an aide to [Mayor Tom] Menino."

January 1999: O'Neil defends the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group with white-supremacist and anti-semitic views, after literature for the group cites him as a supporter. "I'm not a member of it, but they are a good group," he tells the Globe. "They are concerned about this country and what goes on in it."

That's interesting, no question. But it's also embarrassing, especially when you think that O'Neil was a frequent ticket-topper in council elections. Maybe we should be grateful that today's Boston City Council is so boring.

10/10/2007 12:52:45 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

Globe trendspotter Irene Sege has a scoop: asking Dad for permission to wed is back!

Before Bob Hunt dropped to bended knee on the famed Cliff Walk in Newport, R.I., and asked his high school sweetheart to marry him, he’d taken her father to dinner at a Chili’s restaurant and sought his permission.

‘‘Because I have such a great relationship with her family,’’ Hunt says, ‘‘it makes it that much more important that I ask for permission.’’

Reviving a tradition that seemingly went the way of the flapper and Prohibition, young men like Hunt these days are talking to their intendeds’ parents before popping the question. While there are no numbers to track the trend, call a bridal store or wedding venue or otherwise inquire among the betrothed and the newlywed and their parents and it is easy to find examples. Jenna Bush’s fiancé, Henry Hager, reportedly had a private tête-à-tête with her father, the president, before he proposed one summer morning at sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain in Maine. What these young men embrace as a gesture of courtesy and respect has roots in an era when women had few rights and little opportunity. [emphasis added]

On the one hand, you've got to give Sege credit. Good for her for acknowledging that this is basically about treating women like property. Kudos, too, for covering her butt (inspired by Jack Shafer?) with that "no numbers to track the trend" line.

But still, Irene.... What "no numbers to back the trend," how can you say the Bob Hunts of the world are "[r]eviving a tradition that seemingly went the way of the flapper and Prohibition"? It's kind of confusing. And the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.

P.S.--Nice choice of venue, Bob.

10/9/2007 10:02:17 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

This is very odd: Blue Mass. Group's David Kravitz and Charley Blandy were apparently booted from the studios of New England Cable News, which hosted tonight's Fifth District congressional debate, at the request of Jim Ogonowski's campaign.

My quick take is that this makes Ogonowski look bad and NECN look worse--but maybe there were extenuating circumstances I'm not aware of. If/when I get more info, I'll post it here.

10/5/2007 7:42:27 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [8] |  

If I didn't have an unshakeable prior commitment, I'd be hightailing it over to Old South Meeting House for tonight's Ford Hall Forum, which features Pulitzer-winning Globe reporter Charlie Savage. Savage will be discussing his new book, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency, which is up to #313 on Amazon's bestseller list. The action starts at 6:30 p.m.

10/4/2007 4:14:22 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [0] |  

As Jessica Heslam and Dan Kennedy have already noted, Judge Merita Hopkins' decision to bar Channel 7 from reporting troubling autopsy results for two firefighters killed in West Roxbury has dubious legal merit.

In addition to questioning the credibility of Hopkins' ruling, though, we should also be asking why she was involved with this issue at all. Before her appointment as a Suffolk Superior Court judge in April 2006, Hopkins was corporation counsel for the City of Boston. The Boston Fire Department, of course, is a city agency. All of which means that, when Hopkins kept a lid (briefly and ineffectually) on this story yesterday, she was basically aiding her former employer in a moment of duress.

Surely recusal would have been appropriate?

10/4/2007 2:25:43 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [4] |  

From today's New York Times story on the Isiah Thomas-Anucha Browne Sanders case:

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of a 2005 sexual encounter between Stephon Marbury of the Knicks and a team intern. Mr. Marbury testified that it took place in his truck, not in the trunk of his car.

(Via TrueHoop--which recently took this fascinating look at the dark night of Marbury's soul.)

10/3/2007 10:36:31 AM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |  

Today's H.D.S. Greenway column is the sort of thing the Globe ombudsman might write--if, that is, the paper still had one. Here's an excerpt:

Huge demonstrations, and the subsequent crackdown by the authorities, have brought Burma back into Western consciousness. But what to call it?

In 1989 the Burmese military junta renamed the country Myanmar. The New York Times and the Washington Post dutifully call it Myanmar, but often have a reference somewhere in the story saying "formerly Burma." The former capital and biggest city will often be referred to as "Yangon, formerly Rangoon," but sometimes just "Yangon."

The Globe, owned by the New York Times Co., calls the city "Rangoon" and the country "Burma," with maybe a reference in the story saying the junta renamed the country Myanmar....

For those of you keeping score at home, Richard Chacon, the last Globe ombudsman, left his post on May 22, 2006 to become communications director for Deval Patrick's gubernatorial campaign. I think it's safe to say that replacing him is not a priority.

Also, just for fun, here's an excerpt from the Globe's write-up on Chacon's hiring back in 2005. Note the tonal difference between former publisher Richard Gilman's comments and the paraphrase of editor Marty Baron's remarks:

"The existence of the ombudsman assures our readers that their concerns will be carefully evaluated, and that there is someone here to advocate for them whenever it's necessary," Gilman said. "Richard has an excellent background as a reporter and an editor. I know him to be thoughtful, concerned, and open-minded. I'd say he's going to do an excellent job."

Martin Baron, the Globe's editor, said that while many newspapers do not have an ombudsman, Chacon, who has a keen interest in public service, will continue the Globe's nearly 30 years of bringing the community's perspective into the newsroom through the ombudsman's office.

10/2/2007 1:56:19 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [3] |  

Compare and contrast:

--first, today's Globe story on an alleged rape at BU, which mentioned the race of the perpetrator ("white male, about 20 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 170 pounds...").

--next, last week's Globe story on a Mass. Pike carjacking, which described the vehicle carjacked and the suspects' mode of flight but not their physical appearance.

It wasn't just the Globe. The AP didn't describe the carjacking suspects, either. In contrast, WBZ identified the alleged perps as African-American males--info that was included in the Massachusetts State Police's press release on the incident.

I know the question of when reporters should mention race is fraught. I also know it's more fraught in Boston than in some other places. Still, by omitting the racial description here, the Globe and Herald probably drew more attention to the suspects' race than they would have if they'd just mentioned it outright.

10/1/2007 4:59:26 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [0] |  

If you were irked by MoveOn's Petraeus Pun earlier this month, you probably won't like the Petraeus take offered by BU professor Andrew Bacevich in the Oct. 8 issue of the American Conservative.  Here's part of Bacevich's assessment--in a piece titled "Sycophant Savior"--of Petraeus's congressional testimony on the Iraq "surge":

Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes....

A great political general doesn’t tell his masters what they want to hear. He tells them what they need to hear, thereby nudging them to make decisions that must be made if the nation’s interests are to be served. In this instance, Petraeus provided cover for them to evade their responsibilities.

Politically, it qualifies as a brilliant maneuver. The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly.

Ouch.

10/1/2007 1:56:02 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |