Globe Biden Its Time?

October 11, 2012

As the hardreading staff always hopes, the local dailies have very different takes today on what’s front-page news, specifically about the vice presidential bakeoff tonight.

The Globe serves up a  traditional preview piece, a sort of he-should-say/he-should-say:

Biden, Ryan face high stakes in vice presidential debate

Once anticipated as an entertaining sideshow between two feisty candidates, the vice presidential debate Thursday night has taken on higher, unexpected importance in the wake of President Obama’s listless performance last week in Denver.

Democrats are nervous, Republicans sense a surge, and Vice President Joe Biden and GOP challenger Paul Ryan suddenly have a chance to influence the campaign in a substantive way when they meet at Centre College in Danville, Ky.

For Biden, voluble and aggressive, the goal is to steady the Democratic ship amid sinking polls and rising angst. For Ryan, a hard-line budget hawk, the game plan is to maintain or build on the bump that has buoyed Mitt Romney after the first presidential debate.

And etc.

Crosstown at the Herald, it’s a whole different ballgame, one that involves whacking Joe Biden (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

The Joe Battenfeld piece inside predicts Biden’s credit-card-friendly track record may draw some interest and penalties from Ryan in the debate.

Joe Biden’s swipe at middle class

It’s the Joe Biden embarrassment you may not have heard yet, but it could become one of the Romney campaign’s biggest weapons.

Biden likes to portray himself as a fighter for the poor and middle class, but for years in the U.S. Senate he sided with one of the most hated enemies of the middle class — credit card companies.

The vice president has skated on this issue in this campaign, largely because most people have been paying attention to his verbal blunders. That may come to an end as soon as tonight, when he faces off against GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

We’ll see exactly what Ryan charges tonight.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Herald to Globe: Wrong, Baby, Wrong

October 10, 2012

It started out small, the second of two seemingly mundane corrections:

That’s what appeared in yesterday’s Boston Globe.

Here’s what appeared in today’s Boston Herald, compliments of the Track Gals (and Megan!):

Globe won’t ‘Live’ down this blunder

Bestselling Boston writer Dennis Lehane blasted the Globe yesterday, saying the Boring Broadsheet called him racist in a Sunday book review. Trouble is, the “Magical Negro” character that the Globe reviewer claimed Lehane created in his new book is white!

“Accusing a writer of engaging in racial stereotypes is accusing a writer of racism,” Lehane told the Track. “That’s not something you should do casually or without your doing your homework. To call me out for creating a racist stereotype of an African-American character when that character is, in fact, Caucasian is offensive on a multitude of levels.”

The reviewer, Eugenia Williamson, wrote this according to the Globe’s website:

The novel’s flaws converge during a stunningly embarrassing scene in which Joe meets a character named Turner John, a wise yet humble bootlegger and self-described “champeen in the snoring.” Although Joe’s been sent to put a hit on him, instead Turner John tugs at his heart strings with a soliloquy written in dialect: “I had me a fine daddy. Only beat me hard when I had it coming and never when he’d taken to drink,” he says. “You want my money, Mr. Coughlin? Well then you best set to working with me and my boys on the mash and helping us work our farm, till the soil, rotate the crops, milk the cows. You follow?” Does Joe kill Turner John or make his father proud? You decide.

Except that’s not all she wrote. The Globe has removed her references to Turner John as “what Spike Lee would call a magical Negro” and an “African-American bootlegger.”

Except he’s not.

Lehane’s pretty lathered up about this, calling the correction a “pseudo retraction” and  telling the Track “For (Globe editor) Marty Baron, (book editor) Nicole Lamy or the reviewer to then not have the simple decency to contact me and say, ‘Sorry we implied you were a racist, Dennis,’ shows a serious lack of class on their part.”

Eric Randall at Boston magazine’s Boston Daily blog has a smart follow-up:

Dennis Lehane got so angry at a Globe review of his new book Live By Night that accused him of creating a stereotypical “Magical Negro” character, that he learned to use Facebook so he could turn the tables and call the review racist. And not because he says his character isn’t an African American stereotype but because he says his character isn’t an African-American at all. Well played, Lehane.

Randall also includes a link to Lehane’s Facebook page.

Go, baby, go.

 

2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Let’s All Go to the Lobby . . .

October 9, 2012

The local dailies give us two distinct glimpses today into the wide world of influence-peddling.

Boston Herald:

Greenway boss registers as lobbyist

Park seeking more public funds

The embattled Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy apparently hasn’t gotten the message that the nonprofit should be weaning itself off state funds — its leader has registered as a lobbyist to seek more taxpayer money.

Just months after state officials told the conservancy to come up with a plan get off public funding within five years, public records reveal Greenway Executive Director Nancy Brennan registered as a lobbyist this year. Brennan has been under fire since January when the Herald reported on the nonprofit’s six-figure salaries and bonuses, secretive practices and questionable expenses.

During the first six months of this year, records reveal, Brennan received $13,875 to lobby lawmakers. That sum was part of Brennan’s $185,000 annual salary package. The Greenway, which receives roughly half of its $4 million budget from the state to oversee the 15-acre park, racked up nearly $21,000 in lobbying expenses during that time, according to records.

That’s a lot of green, yeah?

Boston Globe:

Quest for admission to Harvard ends in $2 million tangle

To Gerald and Lily Chow, education consultant Mark Zimny must have seemed like the answer to many parents’ prayer: Please let my child get into Harvard University.

The Chows, who lived in Hong Kong, knew little about the US educational system, but they did know that they wanted an Ivy League education for their sons. And they had money to spend on consultants like Zimny, who, they believed, could help make the dream come true.

What transpired, however, turned out to be a cautionary tale for the thousands of parents who are fueling the growing global admissions-consulting industry.

Zimny, whom they met in 2007, had credentials. He had worked as a professor at Harvard. He ran an education consultancy, IvyAdmit. And he had a plan to help the Chows’ two sons, then 16 and 14.

First, Zimny’s company would provide tutoring and supervision while the boys attended American prep schools. Then, according to a complaint and other documents the Chows filed as part of a lawsuit in US District Court in Boston, Zimny said he would grease the admissions wheels, funneling donations to elite colleges while also investing on the Chows’ behalf.

Of course, it was the Chows who got not greased, but hosed.

Both stories are worth the read.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Pols on Parade for Columbus Day

October 8, 2012

Today both local dailies quite naturally featured stories about the usual political gladhanding – most notably by Senate rivals Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren – at East Boston’s annual Columbus Day Parade.

But one paper had better marching orders.

Boston Globe (boink! Sorry, paywall):

Brown, Warren keep on marching

Tight, heated race stops in E. Boston

The state’s hotly contested race for the US Senate came to East Boston on Sunday afternoon, as Republican incumbent Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, both marched in the city’s annual Columbus Day parade.

Separated only by the UMass Lowell marching band, the rivals greeted supporters along the route as their aides and volunteers tried to pump up the crowd by chanting slogans and passing out campaign paraphernalia.

Campaign signs for both candidates dotted the route, and Brown and Warren appeared to be greeted with comparable levels of enthusiastic cheers, polite applause, and quiet stares as the parade progressed.

The Globe also noted that “Warren . . . marched with a group of mostly young supporters, as well as Boston city councilors Salvatore LaMattina, Ayanna Pressley, and Felix Arroyo.”

The Herald coverage, on the other hand, took a slightly different route:

Brown: Jobless rate’s for real

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown scoffed yesterday at conspiracy theories circulated by his party and business tycoon Jack Welch that the Obama administration concocted last week’s encouraging unemployment numbers to distract from the president’s mauling by former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney in their first televised debate.

“No, no, no,” the senator said when asked by a reporter if he believes the jobless numbers were fake.

But Brown, who has been touting his bipartisan voting record on the campaign trail, stopped short of giving Obama any credit for steering the economy toward recovery.

“Listen, we had one month out of 40 something. Let’s see what happens next month. Everything’s flat. I know it, he (Obama) knows it, everyone knows it . . . ”

But there was nothing flat about the response the Herald got when it quizzed Warren on the same topic:

When Brown’s rival, Elizabeth Warren, who also marched, was asked whether she thought Democrats fudged the numbers, an angry Mayor Thomas M. Menino answered for her.

“That’s a typical explanation from Jack Welch. Where has he been the last three or four years? These are real numbers,” Menino railed. “Jack Welch, go back to New York! Stay there.”

Like we said, better marching orders.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Boston Herald Welches on Jobless Numbers

October 7, 2012

The Boston Herald jumped the shark yet again with yesterday’s Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

That thoroughly irresponsible headline was followed up by a slightly more responsible piece inside:

Backlash as GE legend slams jobless numbers

The typically sedate ritual of monthly jobs reporting has ignited a political fire storm, with shocked economists calling the huge job gains a “fiscal anomaly” and former Hub business titan Jack Welch sparking a Twitter war with accusations President Obama’s Chicago cronies are cooking the books.

“This whole number is made of a whole mess of assumptions,” the former General Electric CEO and Hub resident told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “Who’s participating? Who’s not working? Who’s trying to work that’s dropped out. It just raises the question. I think there ought to be a good discussion of how this number is calculated.”

Earlier in the day, Welch tweeted: “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”

That’s total nonsense, unless you’re a card-carrying member of Tinfoil Hat Nation.

But reality’s never gotten in the way of a juicy Herald story.

(For once, the absence of a story in the Boston Globe is a good thing, although it did post this on its website.)

Meanwhile, for a more earthbound perspective, see Joe Nocera’s column in Saturday’s New York Times, and this piece on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.

P.S. Earth to Herald: Get a grip, eh?

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Stop the Presses: Globe and Herald Editorial Cartoonists Agree!

October 6, 2012

Editorial cartoonists Dan Wasserman of the Boston Globe and Jerry Holbert of the Boston Herald had the same line on the first 2012 presidential debate: Barack Obama got totally pwned by Mitt Romney.

Holbert’s version:

 

Wasserman’s version:

 

The hardreading staff just hopes this rare two-daily concurrence doesn’t rip a hole in the space/time continuum.

As they say in the news biz: Space/time will tell.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Boston Globe: Red Sock of Courage on the Shopping Block

October 5, 2012

Curt Schilling has apparently hit sock bottom.

From yesterday’s Boston Globe (boink! sorry, paywall):

Schilling may have to sell ‘bloody sock’

The bloody sock that came to symbolize one of Curt Schilling’s greatest victories could also play a starring role in one of his biggest losses.

The former Boston Red Sox pitcher could be forced to sell a “bloody sock” he wore while leading the Sox to their first championship in 86 years, among other cherished items, to help pay back millions of dollars in loans he guaranteed for his failed video game company, 38 Studios.

The sock, worn by Schilling in the 2004 World Series, was among the collateral Schilling recently pledged to lenders, according to a document filed with the Massachusetts secretary of state’s office.

The Boston Herald catches up today with this piece from the Track Gals (and Megan!):

The lowdown: Curt Schilling to auction 2004 World Series bloody sock

Red Sox hero hurler Curt Schilling seems resigned to losing his memorabilia collection — including his 2004 World Series bloody sock — which he put up as collateral for millions in loans for his failed video game company.

“Been asked about everything many times in the past few months, I kept coming back to ‘Every year of life is NOT 2004’ :)” Curt wrote on his Facebook page yesterday. “I made some mistakes, I owe people and institutions money … add to that the 400 families (that) were upended and I was at the helm.”

The posting was Schilling’s first comments following reports that the legendary sock, which could fetch as much as $25,000 at auction, and a cap worn by Schilling’s hero Lou Gehrig, were among the collateral the pitcher promised to lenders who financed his 38 Studios.

$25,000?  That’s lunch money.

Then again, the market ate Curt Schilling’s lunch.

Go figure.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

The Herald Heralds Itself . . . Again

October 4, 2012

From our Wave Those Pom-Poms! desk

It’s always instructive observing what the Boston Herald considers newsworthy, especially when it involves the paper itself.

Latest case in point: Today’s big news story about . . . That’s right: The Herald.

‘WARNING’ – Herald tops again!

Yesterday’s Herald Page One, advancing last night’s presidential debate, went national as one of the Newseum’s Top 10 front pages — the 11th time the prominent journalism institution has honored the paper this year.

The page, designed by Page One Editor Paul Keaney, was selected from hundreds of newspaper covers from around the world by the Washington D.C.-based organization.

 

Here’s the Newseum’s Top Ten feature from yesterday:

Rumble in the Rockies

How do you tell readers what they already know, that the two presidential contenders will debate tonight in Denver? Creativity is one way to do it, and it’s an approach shared by our 10 top front pages. If we had to pick just one for the pre-debate prize, it would be the Asbury Park Press with its “Rumble in the Rockies” reminder.

Close, Herald, but no cigar.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Just Call Him Howie Carr-toon

October 3, 2012

Actually, that’s unfair to Howie. The entire front page of today’s Boston Herald is sort of cartoonish (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

Start with the don’t-watch-without-Howie warning. His must-read column  – “It’s lights, camera . . . and drool all over Obama” – is just more of the same: the Chris Matthews tingle up his leg, the limousines, Granny Warren, and, of course, this zinger:

How can it be that Mitt Romney putting his dog in a crate on the roof of his car is approximately 100 times as big a story as Barack Obama actually eating one in Indonesia?

Talk about predictable: Carr has essentially moved beyond the formulaic into the algorithmic.

At the bottom of Page One, you’ll find the predictable self-promotion lower left, and the not so predictable self-promotion lower right.

The former:

Debate dominates local airwaves, Web

A stunning 338,000 viewers tuned into the UMass Lowell/Boston Herald U.S. Senate debate Monday night on Ch. 7, WHDH-TV, easily trouncing all the competition on the other stations.

The live-stream of the debate also generated more than 155,000 total streams and was viewed nationwide and in Canada, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Italy, France, South Africa and the Russian Federation, among other places.

“It’s just amazing. We’re delighted with the incredible viewership all over the world,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Martin T. Meehan, who added he was bombarded with calls from former colleagues in Congress about the debate.

The latter:

Faceoffs in need of a facelift

Tear down the podiums. Toss out the time limits. Make the candidates squirm. Let a live audience watch.

It’s a formula that made the Herald-sponsored U.S. Senate debate at UMass Lowell so compelling, and it should be a model for future political showdowns — especially the presidential faceoffs starting tonight.

But that’s not really the surprising part. This is: “The Senate debate on Monday night showed what happens when a world-class questioner such as David Gregory of NBC’s “Meet the Press” is allowed to push the candidates to explain their positions and cut them off if they’re not answering.”

Joe Battenfeld is definitely swimming upstream in that take on Gregory’s moderating chops. (See here for opposite impressions.)

But, hey, that’s what makes horse races.

 

2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

The Boston Herald’s Debate and Twitch

October 2, 2012

Big relief: In the aftermath of last night’s debate (co-sponsored by the Boston Herald) between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, the feisty local tabloid didn’t run ten pages of coverage the way they did yesterday.

It ran THIRTEEN pages, which featured everything from a scorecard to a fashion critique to enough thumbsucking to fill a maternity ward. (Roll your own here.)

The Boston Globe, after ignoring the debate yesterday, actually covered it in today’s edition, which provided a news report, news analysis, and a thumbsucker trifecta. (Ditto here.)

You’ll find coverage by the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider here.

And let the wild rumpus recommence.

 

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »