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Bully for BU!

A curious conflict of interest is followed by a legal threat — from a journalism center!
After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.

By: ADAM REILLY | March 12, 2010

Stop the Quinn-sanity!

Annals of Journalistic Awkwardness
The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.

By: ADAM REILLY | March 03, 2010

Right Click

Conservatives have ruled radio and liberals have dominated the net; but as the Red Mass Group's rise demonstrates, the left's Web supremacy is hardly a sure bet.
Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressively rebutting the governor-to-be's critics — I sized up a recent conservative entry in the local blogosphere.

By: ADAM REILLY | February 19, 2010

Ransom Notes

Was the NY Times being hypocritical when it suppressed coverage of its journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban?
While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

By: ADAM REILLY | February 12, 2010

Poor reception

Talk radio helped energize Scott Brown's Senate campaign. Will it doom the Democrats in 2010?
The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.

By: ADAM REILLY | February 08, 2010

Brave new Globe?

With a new publisher and a bevy of edit changes, is the Boston Globe poised for a new chapter?
Sizing up the Boston Globe 's recent past is easy: simply put, in the past 12 months, the paper has seen enough gut-wrenching drama to change the name of Morrissey Boulevard to Melrose Place. But forecasting the paper's future is another matter.

By: ADAM REILLY | January 29, 2010

Covering a tragedy

How does a small local paper cover the world's biggest story?
The earthquake that ravaged Haiti on January 12 posed a major challenge for the Boston Haitian Reporter , the lone English-language outlet focused on Boston's sizable Haitian community. The quake and its aftermath were of vital interest to the Reporter 's core audience, but local, national, and international media were already tackling the story with resources that the Reporter simply didn't have.

By: ADAM REILLY | January 20, 2010

Through a glass darkly

Forecasting the media year to come
Predicting a Super Bowl winner doesn't make you a genius: after all, given a pool of 32 teams, one of them is bound to capture the trophy. But predicting the future for an industry that's been buffeted by new technologies and economic vicissitudes, and sometimes seems to have all the substance and staying power of sea foam? That's an accomplishment.

By: ADAM REILLY | January 08, 2010

Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition

The Phoenix's second annual year in media malfeasance
Between the rise of the Web, the ADD-addling of America, the fragmentation of any national political consensus, and the devastated economy, working in the press can feel a bit like manning the Titanic — and this year, the entire industry seemed to teeter on the edge of oblivion.

By: ADAM REILLY | December 28, 2009

Battle of the Bulger

Former Mass. Sen. Pres. William Bulger defends James Michael Curley's legacy — and his own
Earlier this fall, with almost no fanfare, Beverly-based Commonwealth Editions published a new biography of Boston's archetypal politician — James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences — written by former Massachusetts Senate president William Bulger.

By: ADAM REILLY | December 16, 2009

The Globe's biggest union expels its head

Union Blues Dept.
What a difference six months make.

By: ADAM REILLY | December 11, 2009

Goal rush!

How long can Boston's frenetic sports-media explosion last?
Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation will likely focus on how absurdly bright the future looks. Especially here in Boston.

By: ADAM REILLY | December 02, 2009

Greg Epstein, Atheist Superstar

Can Harvard's humanist chaplain save nonbelief from itself?
Once an intellectual taboo, atheism has become one of the great growth industries of the third millennium.

By: ADAM REILLY | November 24, 2009

Unmaking a bad federal law

Justice for Some
It's been a depressing stretch for supporters of marriage equality.

By: ADAM REILLY | November 24, 2009

Holy terror?

Cutting through the muddled thinking about Nidal Malik Hasan's faith and its role in the Fort Hood shootings
On the afternoon of November 5, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan walked into a building at Fort Hood, the sprawling military base in central Texas; sat briefly in solitary silence; and then opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol, shooting roughly a hundred rounds and killing 12 soldiers and one civilian.

By: ADAM REILLY | November 16, 2009

Difference of opinion

Peter Canellos reinvents Globe ’s editorial page. Plus, Tom Menino’s campaign gets late-breaking help from the Banner and Herald .
It’s been three months since Peter Canellos replaced Renée Loth as editor of the Boston Globe ’s editorial page.

By: ADAM REILLY | November 09, 2009

The importance of being Ernie

What drives Howie Carr’s anonymous tormentor?
Media feuds don’t come any nastier than the metastasizing spat between Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr and one “Ernie Boch III,” the pseudonymous blogger at the liberal Web site Blue Mass. Group. (Note: the blogger is no relation to the car dealer.)

By: ADAM REILLY | October 19, 2009

Latter day taint

How Glenn Beck is driven by Mormonism — and why his fellow faithful (including Mitt Romney) should be worried
Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck was a small-market DJ with a drinking problem, no friends, and bleak professional prospects. Today, he’s a Fox News superstar averaging 2.4 million viewers, an inexorably successful author, and the leader of a popular movement that condemns government in general and President Barack Obama in particular.

By: ADAM REILLY | October 10, 2009

Philadelphia Story

What Steve Taylor needs to know if he succeeds in buying the Globe
The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher.

By: ADAM REILLY | October 01, 2009

Menino's junked mail

The Globe ratchets up the intensity in Boston's mayoral race. Plus, the Times Co. gets some love from the Globe newsroom and BU books blowhard Bill O'Reilly.
Two years ago, when I wrote a column griping about the Boston media's apathy-inducing disinterest in city politics, Boston Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told me his paper had given the lackluster 2007 elections as much coverage as they deserved, but hinted that things would be different in 2009.

By: ADAM REILLY | September 16, 2009

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