Boston Herald: Gronkpocalypse! No, wait – Gronkmageddon!

November 19, 2012

Today’s Boston Herald is all Rob Gronkowski all the time.

Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

 

 

And just in case you haven’t absorbed the seriousness of the situation, here’s the back cover of the feisty local tabloid:

 

 

Oh, yes, there are also three – count ’em, three – stories chronicling the Gronkastrophe. Ron Borges’ column serves as a representative sample:

The only way to contain him

FOXBORO — There are matchup problems and then there are no-match-for-this problems. The latter is what Rob Gronkowski represented to the Indianapolis Colts yesterday.

To be fair, Gronkowski has been a problem for nearly every defense he’s faced since he first arrived three years ago. But there are problems like “A man gets on a train going 70 mph at 3 p.m. and travels north for three hours. What time does he arrive at the station?’’ and there are problems like “A man gets on a train going 70 mph at 3 p.m. and travels north for three hours before changing to a train going 63 mph and heads east for two hours, stopping for a brief lunch and a smoke. He then switches to a bus traveling at 60 mph but forgot his hat. What time does he arrive in Albany?’’

Rob Gronkowski was the latter to the Colts. Whether the tight end continues to be a nightmare for future opponents remains to be seen since the Patriots [team stats] fear the Colts did to him what he did to the Colts, which is to say broke him.

And etc.

As for the Boston Globe, how did they cover the Gronk out? Here’s the front page of today’s Sports section:

See it there upper right? It says, Gronkowski’s big game ends with broken left arm. C6.

No? It’s a Gronking shame.

 

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Herald Coverage Is Twinkie Dinkie

November 17, 2012

Everybody has the Twinkie strikeout on the front page today.

The New York Times:

 

 

The Wall Street Journal:

 

 

The Boston Globe:

 

 

The Boston Herald?

Unh-unh.

 

 

Tel Aviv over Twinkies?

Good for the Herald.

 

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Special Edition: It’s Good to Live in a Two-Times Company Town (X Marks the Thompson Spot)

November 17, 2012

Friday’s New York Times featured what might be the first chime in the death knell of newly minted New York Times Company CEO Mark Thompson.

Letter Raises Questions About When BBC Ex-Chief Learned of Abuse Cases

A legal letter sent on behalf of Mark Thompson, the former director general of the BBC, raises questions about his assertions that he learned of accusations of sexual abuse against its longtime host Jimmy Savile only after leaving the corporation’s top job.

In the letter, sent 10 days before Mr. Thompson left the BBC in September, lawyers representing him and another executive threatened to sue The Sunday Times in London over contentions in an article it was preparing that they had been involved in killing a BBC investigation of Mr. Savile.

Interviews show that the letter included a summary of the alleged abuse, including the allegation that some abuse might have occurred at the BBC.

Translation: Thompson at the very least misremembered when he became aware of the Jimmy Savile row.

At worst, this is just the first shoe to drop. At best . . . well, there is no best.

Meanwhile, the Times kissin’ cousin Boston Globe has yet to even grab a shoehorn.

The Globe’s most extensive reference to the Thompson kerfuffle ran in this October 26 pickup from the Times wire service:

The scandal has drawn in several top figures at the BBC, including its current director general, George Entwistle, who took over in September from Mark Thompson, the incoming president and chief executive of The New York Times Co.

Thompson was director general of the BBC when the editor of a current affairs program canceled an investigation into Savile in late 2011, just as other divisions of the BBC were planning Christmastime tributes to him a few months after his death at age 84.

Thompson has said repeatedly that he knew nothing about the investigation by the ‘‘Newsnight’’ program while it was under way, had no role in canceling it and also had heard none of the suspicions about Savile.

On Thursday, Thompson won an enthusiastic endorsement from Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman of The New York Times Co. and the publisher of The Times.

Since then, a whole lot of nothing.

The hardreading staff sort of feels Globeniks are entitled to something more.

 

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Herald: City Haul in Menino’s Absence

November 16, 2012

It’s now three weeks Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s been in the hospital with a Whitman’s Sampler of symptoms, and not surprisingly, political maneuvering is the order of the day (although anyone who bets against Menino running again doesn’t really care about his money).

According to the Boston Herald, it’s all hijinks and shenanigans down at City Hall. Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

Seems a bit hyperventilating to the hardreading staff, but that’s nothing new for the feisty local tabloid. Nor is the double coverage from bookend columnists.

Peter Gelzinis:

For once, the council prez chase matters

It seems that the growing public concern over Mayor Thomas Menino’s indefinite hospitalization has been exceeded only by the simmering political intrigue within the chamber of the Boston City Council.

As one insider put it yesterday, “The long knives are starting to come out.”

With each day the mayor spends at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the presidency of the City Council suddenly looms larger and larger.

“No one will dare admit it right now,” said a council watcher, “but all of them know that thistime, being council president might actually mean something.”

Say – are we zoned for that?

Joe Battenfeld:

Voters primed to pick black or Latino pol

The stars are aligned for Boston voters — as soon as next year — to make some long overdue history.

Whether Mayor Thomas M. Menino finally decides to retire or not, there’s a good chance his successor will be either black or Hispanic.

That would be ho-hum news in most other major cities, but not in Boston, where every single mayor for the past 190 years has been a white male. That’s an astounding distinction, considering that nearly half of Boston’s registered voters are now minorities.

“Distinction” sounds so positive; maybe we could call it an aberration.

Meanwhile, crosstown at the Boston Globe, the Corner Office  Steeplechase gets not two columns, but two paragraphs in Brian McGrory’s piece today.

On to the mayoralty. For years, every time I’ve thought about joining the chorus that says Thomas M. Menino should retire, I do something crazy. I look around this city. And what I see is a waterfront that may be the most booming urban neighborhood in America, clean streets and cranes in Dudley Square, a relatively low crime rate, stable property values, and sections from the North End to the South End that are packed with diners, play-goers, and just plain strollers through the week. Menino may not be fancy, but his effectiveness is indisputable. But today marks his 21st day at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which means that every member of that august legislative body known as the Boston City Council is plotting his or her own mayoral campaign for 2013. It’s a little scary when you consider that whenever anyone calls a recess at a City Council hearing, the entire group runs frantically for the doors to play kickball outside, juiceboxes in hand. Not that kind of recess, guys.

McGrory then turns Great Mentioner, listing a handful of possible candidates from Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley to Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish.

Wait – is that Tom Menino we hear? He says Go Fish.

 

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Herald’s Breaking News: Herald Breaking News

November 15, 2012

Walt (“I celebrate myself, and sing myself”) Whitman would love the Boston Herald today.

The feisty local tabloid  devotes Page One to . . . itself!

Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

Inside there’s a big takeout on unemployment reform:

Labor boss pledges to close jobless benefits loopholes

The state labor chief — caught off-guard last spring by a series of Herald exposes that showed retired cops, vacationing teachers, election officials and others pocketing unemployment pay — is vowing to close loopholes and push a new law to stop city and town workers from “gaming the system.”

“To taxpayers, we have a message that we hear your concerns. We share that you should be paying only (unemployment) costs for those individuals who are entitled to it,” state labor secretary Joanne Goldstein told the Herald yesterday.

And there’s also this priceless paragraph:

“We appreciate the Herald bringing this to our attention so that we can look at the whole system … to lower (unemployment) costs for municipalities,” Goldstein said. “It’s a good example of the power of the press to the extent that you were able to raise awareness of this issue.”

But wait – there’s more: A handy clip ‘n’ save chart/timeline:

 

 

Somewhere beyond the grave, Walt is smiling.

 

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Upper Crustfallen

November 15, 2012

Full disclosure: The hardlunching staff has boycotted the Upper Crust pizza chain ever since the Boston Globe revealed its sleazy labor tactics in a series of reports last year.

So it was with mixed emotions (good for the exploited workers/bad for the exploited workers) that we read this Globe report yesterday:

Ailing Upper Crust closes most restaurants

About 140 employees lose their jobs; company seeks cash infusion

Upper Crust has abruptly closed most of its restaurants, let go about 140 employees, and will shut down permanently unless the gourmet pizza chain gets a cash infusion in the next few days, according to a trustee overseeing the Boston-based company.

At a hearing in US Bankruptcy Court Tuesday, the trustee, Mark G. DeGiacomo, said Upper Crust shut restaurants Monday night because it had just four days of supplies and only $14,000 in cash after company executives paid themselves a month’s salary in advance.

The business, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, needs $120,000 to keep doors open. If the company can obtain funding within few days, it could avoid a permanent shutdown. So far, Upper Crust has closed 10 of 16 locations.

Not surprisingly, given its previous hounding of the upscale pizza chain, the Globe ran its story on page one of its Business section.

Also not surprisingly, given its previous sucking-hind-tit coverage of the pizza chain, the Boston Herald  relegated the story to its Ticker summary:

Upper Crust closes most eateries

The Upper Crust pizza chain has shuttered 10 of its restaurants in the Bay State and Washington, D.C., as the struggling eatery, which is going through bankruptcy, tries to preserve cash flow and stay open long enough to attract a buyer.

Eat that, eh?

 

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Herald: Baron Jumps Sinking Ship?

November 14, 2012

Today’s Boston Globe has the front-page story on the exodus of editor Marty Baron.

11-year Globe editor Martin Baron to depart

Will take reins at Washington Post

Martin Baron , the editor of The Boston Globe who led the news organization as it won six Pulitzer Prizes over the past decade, will become executive editor of The Washington Post in January, both papers said Tuesday.

The Globe will launch a search to fill Baron’s job, said publisher Christopher M. Mayer. While citing the talent within the newsroom, he said he would also consider outside candidates. Mayer said his aim is to fill the position as quickly as possible.

“We’re looking for the right person at the right time to really carry on the quality journalism that’s the embodiment of everything we are doing today,” Mayer said in an interview.

In his valediction to the Globe newsroom, Baron asserted that his departure has nothing to do with the fiscal fitness of the paper.

Noting that he navigated through difficult times for the news business, Baron said New England’s largest newspaper has emerged as a sound institution. “We’re on solid footing here at the Globe,” he said. “The Globe has a good future ahead of it. “

Not if you listen to the Boston Herald, which says it has the inside story.

Globe editor departing for gig at Washington Post

Baron successor all the talk

The long-rumored departure of Boston Globe editor Marty Baron for the top slot at The Washington Post — the beleaguered broadsheet’s third bigwig to jump ship in recent months — has roiled the Morrissey Boulevard newsroom and set tongues wagging about a possible fire sale.

“He may think that the clock is ticking, it’s time to get out,” said Benchmark Co. analyst Edward Atorino. “The Post is going to be around forever, whereas the Globe — not sure.”

Of course, that’s exactly what you’d expect a Herald piece to say. But at least columnist Jessica Heslam spiced it up with some speculation:

Scuttlebutt has it that Times metro editor Carolyn Ryan, a former Herald and Globe staffer, could come in as a caretaker editor in a move that could signal a sale of the paper.

Among the inside candidates bandied about: Globe editorial page editor Peter Canellos, deputy managing Sunday editor Mark Morrow, associate editor and metro columnist Brian McGrory and managing editor Caleb Solomon.

(The Globe’s kissin’ cousin down in New York just teased readers: “Three internal candidates [at the Globe? the Times?] have been named as possible successors. A spokesman for the Times Company said a national search would be conducted.”)

No dish from the Globe yet. At least not in the paper.

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Special Edition: It’s Good to Live in a Two-Times Co. Town (College Live/Deadstock Division)

November 14, 2012

Looks like the New York Times is rippin’ off its kissin’ cousin, the Boston Globe.

Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Monday’s Globe piece about Green Mountain College being oxymarooned:

Lou the ox is quietly euthanized at Vt. college

Injured animal put down, buried in early morning; second ox’s fate undertermined

The veterinarian came before dawn, and Lou the ox was quietly euthanized.

The decision by the small liberal arts college in Vermont in early October to slaughter its beloved pair of oxen and serve their meat in the campus dining hall had sparked worldwide outrage.

The euthanasia of Lou, who was suffering from an injury, was performed on the campus farm by a large-animal veterinarian between midnight and daybreak Sunday, according to Philip Ackerman-Leist, director of the farm and food project at Green Mountain College, in Poultney, near the border with New York State.

“It was hard for him to get around,” Ackerman-Leist said, adding that with winter approaching things would only get worse. “We wouldn’t want to see him suffer anymore.”

The other ox, Bill, remains at Green Mountain’s Cerridwen Farm, according to the Globe report. “Ackerman-Leist said he was not sure whether Bill would go back to work ‘as a single ox or not.'”

He also said Lou was buried at an undisclosed location off campus.

Tuesday’s Times piece about the same:

A Casualty Amid Battle to Save College Oxen

A working ox named Lou, who in recent weeks became arguably his species’ most prominent representative, died on Sunday in pastoral Vermont, euthanized after his impending slaughter stirred a face-off between sustainable farmers in the state and animal rights advocates from around the world.

For Green Mountain College, where Lou tilled the fields with his teammate, a second ox named Bill, this was never the plan. After about 10 years at the college, Lou sustained an injury to his right rear hock over the summer. The college decided to slaughter both animals and serve them in the dining hall, viewing the action as an execution of the college’s sustainable-farming mission . . .

But, of course, that didn’t work out. Then again, this did:

Bill will remain at Green Mountain College, which said in its statement that he will “receive care consistent with appropriate livestock practices.”

Note the link above: The Times reported on this oxycontention two weeks ago.

So . . . whose ox is being gored here?

You tell us.

UPDATE: As you can see in Sweet Jane’s comment below, the Globe had the original story several days before the Times did. The hardwincing staff thanks her, apologizes to the Globe.

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John Kerryoke’s Musical Chairs

November 13, 2012

It’s Post time at the local dailies in the race to cover the Obama administration’s national security team fire drill.

Both papers pick up a Washington Post story this morning. The Globe’s version, predictably, is lengthier.

Kerry may be choice for secretary of defense

Security shuffle follows Petraeus’s departure

WASHINGTON — President Obama is considering asking Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David Petraeus.

Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

John Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, is a leading contender for the CIA job if he wants it, officials said. If Brennan goes ahead with his plan to leave government, Michael Morell, the agency’s acting director, is the prohibitive favorite to take over permanently. Officials cautioned that the White House discussions are in the early phases and that no decisions have been made.

The Herald pickup is much shorter (and massaged by reporter Joe Dwinell), but it includes something the Globe doesn’t: The Great Mentioner.

If Kerry goes to Defense, the scramble for his seat would quickly move U.S. Sen. Scott Brown back into the picture, or possibly former Gov. William F. Weld, a fellow Republican. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep Edward J. Markey has been mentioned as a possible candidate. State Attorney General Martha Coakley could also take another shot at higher office.

Let the wild Special Election Rumpus begin!

 

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Boston Globe Remembers Legendary Herald Reporter Joe Heaney

November 13, 2012

The Boston Globe, which the hardreading staff has noted for its record of slowbituaries, checks in early with this obit of Boston Herald reporter Joe Heaney:

Joe Heaney, 82; longtime Boston Herald reporter

During his career as a reporter for the Boston Herald and other newspapers, Joe Heaney wrote about the Vietnam War, the troubles in Ireland, political scandals, and organized crime in Boston. But some nights, he drove through the city with Raymond L. Flynn, looking for homeless people who needed a lift to the Pine Street Inn shelter.

“Joe used to say the people we picked up were just down on their luck,” said Flynn, a former Boston mayor and US ambassador to the Vatican. “And he always said that he learned more about Boston and about being a good reporter from being out on the street on a cold winter night than he did from covering any type of event.”

After canvassing neighborhoods, Flynn said, he and Mr. Heaney usually headed to J.J. Foley’s pub in the South End for a beer.

“He was certainly a professional reporter,” he said. “He was also my dear friend, a very compassionate, sensitive guy who I considered one of the best human beings I ever met.”

The testifiers in the Herald’s Sunday two-gun salute to Heaney overwhelmingly agreed.

Rest in peace, Joe.

And good for the Globe, getting there so fast.

 

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