Mr. Reilly’s article “Morrissey Boulevard Melancholia” is on point. The future of print media is being victimized by the Internet and cable TV, which provide so many no-waiting alternatives. And the corporatization of the print and broadcast media by the “bean counters” is posing a serious threat to our free press and its career journalists.
When families like the Taylors of the Globe or the Stoddards of the Worcester Telegram owned the newspapers, dips in profits did not matter. They lived locally and were involved with the well-being of their respective communities. For the most part, reporters, editorial writers, and columnists enjoyed a career ladder with slight interference, if any. That has now changed. Newsroom journalists today are nothing more than commodities lacking in paycheck security. As a result, reporters are doing the once unthinkable: tuning résumés on an hourly basis and diminishing loyalty to management because they fear being “pink slipped” without notice. The profession and its code of ethics are sinking under this disease.
Hopefully, newspapers in our country will reinvent themselves quickly, to continue giving us the press we have enjoyed since the inception of our nation.
John Gatti Jr.
Southbridge
Rocking on
I appreciated your Justin Timberlake article. I think you touched on an interesting thing about Justin’s popularity: he has no indie cred, no struggling-artist-waiting-to-be-heard appeal, no fledgling-genius-that-might-not-make-it story. Before his album comes out, a bajillion people are already lining up to buy it. Yet his new album — from the songs to the artwork to the interviews — has Justin humbling himself. He’s looking at what he does as an art, and writing good songs that come off with sincerity, even if he is still riffing on women in the club, etc.
There’s respect in this new bit for pop kings of the past; I think that is worth celebrating. It was awesome to find some words that looked a little deeper into his character, rather than just at his tabloid features. To take away the hype after being known for so long for one particular thing is a challenge, but also an effort worth making. I am excited to see where it leads. Thanks a lot.
Art Middleton
Providence, Rhode Island
Tragedy’s no excuse
Matt Taibbi’s “Sports Blotter” piece opens with a damning description of Southeast Texas communities that took in refugees from New Orleans and now have second thoughts. We then move a few hundred miles north and meet Howard Stirgus, a kid from New Orleans who found a new home in Denton, Texas. Stirgus apparently first got into a fight at his new school and then, in an effort to delay a basketball game that he would otherwise have missed, was simultaneously vain and dim enough to threaten the school with bomb threats — “over a dozen” of them. Strangely, the implied criticism in the piece is directed at those who would judge Stirgus. The closest we get to criticism of Stirgus is when Taibbi worries that he might not be entirely ready for college-level work; otherwise, he is “just a kid who who wanted to play in a basketball game.” Let’s hope that Stirgus gets his act together and that things work out for him. But being from New Orleans combined with a desire to play basketball does not make him the wronged party here. Lots of people are from New Orleans, and lots of people want to play basketball. They don’t all get to make bomb threats.
Brian Floca
Brooklyn, New York
Debater’s corner
David Bernstein’s reporting on Tourism Massachusetts is loaded with inaccuracies, unsupported assertions, and anonymous quotes, takes wild character jabs at several dedicated public servants, and in some cases is border-line libelous. It demands rebuttal.
Mr. Bernstein charges that there has been lax oversight of Tourism Massachusetts, yet two of the five staff members are financial professionals; the organization has been subject to three independent audits; all board members have access to all financial records at any time; the organization is current with all applicable IRS filings; and the state Department of Business Technology has been provided with quarterly financial reports.
Mr. Bernstein reports that international tourism to Massachusetts declined in 2006, citing the US Department of Commerce. There is no way for him to know this. Those figures have not yet been released. In 2005, international leisure tourism to Massachusetts did increase by 12 percent, according to the DOC.
Mr. Bernstein reports that Senator Therese Murray was “traveling to Italy every year” as part of Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism sales missions while I was in charge of MOTT. From 1995 to 2001, MOTT never took an elected official to any sales mission in any country. Senator Murray recently noted publicly that she has never been to Italy.
Mr. Bernstein also reports that Tourism Massachusetts helped fund a trip to Russia for Senator Murray and other legislators. Not true. Tourism Massachusetts in no way paid for or provided any funds to cover or support a trip to Russia for Murray or any other legislators.
Mr. Bernstein incorrectly reports that Tara Rendon was once an employee of the Massachusetts International Marketing Partnership, parent company to Tourism Mass. She was not.
Mr. Bernstein incorrectly reports that Mary Jane McKenna resigned from MOTT in 2002. She did not resign. She retired from state service.
Mr. Bernstein asserts that I “might have handed out” significant sums of public money “in stacks to friends.” This outrageous statement is completely false and appears to be libelous.
David Bernstein owes an apology to the subjects of his reporting — and to Phoenix readers — for his work in this case falls far short of your publication’s high standards.
William H. MacDougall
Tourism Massachusetts
David S. Bernstein replies: I asked Mr. MacDougall how he spent the $850,000 he claims it cost to create the Tourism Massachusetts Web sites; that is, who received how much, and for what. He refused to tell me, as he has refused to tell state officials.
A quote from the article, in which a source claimed that Murray traveled to Italy on MOTT sales missions, appears to be inaccurate. However, the broader point — that state tourism and industry leaders took Murray on international junkets — has not been refuted. Also, referring to Tara Rendon as a “one-time MIMP employee” may not have been technically accurate, but she is listed as part of Tourism Massachusetts’s management staff in its 2004 bid proposal.