Boston Herald Gives Belichick a Pass

June 11, 2013

Tim Tebowpalooza gets plenty of play in today’s Boston Herald, from Page One

 

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to the double-barreled columnists here

 

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to this Sports Section piece

 

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to the back page of the feisty local tabloid.

 

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But nowhere is there any mention of this from a Yahoo! Sports piece last month:

67429761-806c-4001-8137-34de570d376c_135613979[W]hile there’s plenty of media chatter that Tebow could land with the Patriots (whose offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, was the man behind the Broncos’ decision to draft Tebow in the first round), my organizational sources tell me that’s very unlikely to happen, with one going so far as to say that Coach Bill Belichick “hates” Tebow as a player.

 

Belichick waited four weeks to deny that, which seems like mighty convenient timing and sort of undermines the outrage in his statement to ESPN Boston: “[F]or anyone to have represented that is the way I feel about Tim Tebow is completely untrue, baseless and irresponsible. It is unfortunate that something so inaccurate was reported.”

And not repeated in today’s Herald. A Boston Globe report by Shalise Manza Young, however, did make reference to it:

It seemed odd last Thursday that Belichick suddenly decided to dispute a Yahoo! Sports story from nearly a month earlier that cited a Patriots source who said Belichick “hates” Tebow as a player. Belichick told ESPNBoston.com that was “untrue, baseless, and irresponsible” to report that he felt that way about Tebow.

Now it makes a bit more sense.

 

Again, just not to the Herald.

 

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Rivers Flows Only Toward Globe

June 10, 2013

Looks like Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers is playing favorites with the local dailies.

From today’s Boston Globe:

rivers-bigDoc Rivers mum on returning to Celtics

MIAMI — Doc Rivers reached out to the Globe for the first time since the Celtics’ season concluded, but would not offer any hints as to whether he will return to the team as coach in a text-message exchange Sunday evening.

Rivers said he needed to “detox” after the season and apologized for being inaccessible to reporters . . .

Which apparently still applies to the Boston Herald. The feisty local tabloid has nothing in today’s print edition, and hasn’t even fudged a web piece the way it usually does.

Hey, Heraldniks: Like Howie always says, when the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s Doc.

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Herald Hitches Carr to Globe

June 9, 2013

Apparently Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr has run out of ways to milk his presence on Whitey Bulger’s witness list, which would presumably keep him from covering the mobster’s trial in person.

So the feisty local tabloid has followed in the Boston Globe’s footsteps and asked the court to let their Howie go.

jacobs_howie_3-6288449Herald wants columnist in courtroom

The Boston Herald filed a request in federal court Saturday to exclude the newspaper’s columnist Howie Carr from a sequestration order that would prevent him from sitting in the courtroom during the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious gangster who has been the subject of countless Carr columns and several books.

The motion came a day after US District Court Judge Denise Casper granted a similar request from The Boston Globe to exclude veteran journalists, reporter Shelley Murphy and columnist Kevin Cullen, who wrote a book together about Bulger, from the same sequestration order. “The Boston Herald and Mr. Carr respectfully submit that the reasons supporting exemption of those journalists similarly require exclusion of Mr. Carr from the sequestration order,” the newspaper’s lawyer, Elizabeth A. Ritvo, said in the filing Saturday.

 

Funny thing is, that report appeared in the Globe. Nothing in the Herald about it.

The hardreading staff is checking with our Walt Whitman desk for clarification.

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Battle of the Bulger (Cullen the Facts Edition)

June 8, 2013

The Boston Herald wants you to know it’s on the Whitey Bulger trial like Brown on Williamson, so they’re running this ad in today’s edition:

 

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And here’s an example of that “complete coverage.”

060713bulgermg002Witness ban lifted for Globe duo

Judge Denise J. Casper ruled yesterday that Boston Globe reporter Shelley Murphy and columnist Kevin Cullen can attend James “Whitey” Bulger’s trial, exempting them from her order to keep witnesses out of the courtroom except to testify . . .

In a separate court motion yesterday, Bulger’s lawyers threatened a push to isolate the jury from the outside world throughout the expected four-month trial “if the editors of the Globe do not show better judgment in the publication of columns that are designed to sell newspapers and for-profit books written by this columnist (Cullen).”

 

Interesting, yes? But hardly complete.

Here’s the same issue in the Globe:

Earlier Friday, Bulger’s defense attorney J. W. Carney Jr. filed a court motion in support of the request to ban Murphy and Cullen from the courtroom, alleging that Cullen’s Friday column on Bulger was sensational and would prejudice a jury.

Carney later said he would consider asking that the jury in the case be sequestered, which would prove to be costly and a hardship for jurors, if the Globe does not “show better judgment in the publication of columns that are designed to sell newspapers and for-profit books written by this columnist.”

But Casper rejected Carney’s argument when she granted the newspaper’s request to exclude Cullen and Murphy from the courtroom during testimony, noting the journalists’ constitutional rights in reporting on Bulger’s past and covering his trial.

Casper said she read the column Friday morning and indicated it seemed to support the Boston Globe’s argument, telling Carney, “From a 1st Amendment point of view I don’t know if it lends more support to your position, or more support to your opposing party’s point of view.”

 

[To be sure graf goes here.]

To be sure, both papers are pursing their own interests: the Herald to make the Globe look bad, the Globe to make itself look good. (The stately local broadsheet for the most part doesn’t concern itself with the feisty local tabloid.)

That’s all to be expected. But hey, Heraldniks: Complete coverage? Try again.

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Battle of the Bulger (Can I Be a Witness? Edition)

June 7, 2013

The Boston Globe is reporting on its website that its reporters can cover the trial of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Judge rejects Bulger effort to ban Globe journalists

US District Court Judge Denise J. Casper ruled today that Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen and reporter Shelley Murphy can cover the trial of James “Whitey’’ Bulger, the South Boston gangster who was recorded on jailhouse tapes describing his disdain for the two journalists who have chronicled his career for decades . . .

Bulger’s defense team put Cullen and Murphy on their witness list, saying they might need to be called to impeach testimony from key prosecution witnesses. But federal prosecutors, citing comments Bulger made in the jail conversations, said he was motivated by his disdain towards Cullen and Murphy.

 

The feeling is, of course, mutual, as Cullen’s column in today’s dead-tree edition illustrates.

I’ll be glad to submit some sample testimony right here so they can decide whether they really want to call me as a defense witness.de5e692f74914a5487db1f8aabf250e4-de5e692f74914a5487db1f8aabf250e4-0

I believe Whitey Bulger is a deeply cynical and vicious criminal who made millions by killing and intimidating people while he was protected by a deeply corrupted FBI.

I believe he made millions from the drug trade, extorting money from drug dealers even as he and his apologists propagated the nonsense that he never was involved in drugs.

 

And etc. in much the same vein. Except all that’s, well, moot now.

But not yet for Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, who’s also on Bulger’s witness list and has not been dismissed from it by today’s ruling. So Carr can continue to produce drive-bys like Wednesday’s piece:

Picture 8No question about it, I’ll find courtside seat

First I tried to get a victim’s seat in the courtroom — no go.

Then I figured I’d just attend Whitey’s trial as a reporter — but Bulger put me on his witness list, although I am confident the judge will eventually decide to allow me to watch the trial, even if I do have to be a witness — a hostile witness, that is.

But given my dismal record in court, I don’t want to take any chances. So I filled out a jury questionnaire just in case that might get me inside.

 

And etc. – including most notably Question 39:

Based upon any … articles you have read, have you formed an opinion regarding James “Whitey” Bulger that would prevent you from being a fair and impartial juror in this case?

I think I read several hundred times in the Globe that, “Jimmy kept the drugs out of Southie.” Is that true?

 

The hardreading staff can’t really say, but maybe Kevin Cullen can.

 

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Globe Roxburys Violence

June 3, 2013

From our Compare ‘n’ Contrast in Clear Idiomatic English desk

Boston Sunday Globe, Metro Page Two:

Woman dies in Roxbury shooting

A woman is dead and a man was in serious condition after a shooting in Roxbury Saturday afternoon, Boston police said.

The two, both believed to be in their 20s, were shot around 3:22 p.m. while sitting in a silver sedan on Walnut Avenue in Roxbury, Police Superintendent William B. Evans said at the scene Saturday.

Police are investigating whether that shooting is related to another in Roxbury Saturday morning that left two men wounded.

 

Sunday Boston Herald, Page One:

 

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Sunday Boston Herald, Page Two:

 

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[To be sure graf goes here:]

Admittedly, the feisty local tabloid is all about crime, scandal, and crime. But in this case who really did justice to yet another travesty/tragedy in Boston’s minority neighborhoods?

That’s right. The Herald.

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Hark! The Herald! (Whitey You Can Drive My Carr Edition)

June 1, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

As the hardreading staff noted earlier, the Boston Herald is all aglow over the imminent trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, especially the personal involvement of its star columnist Howie Carr (who “vowed to watch Whitey every step of the way through judgment day,” according to the feisty local tabloid).

And maybe testify on the mobster’s behalf. From today’s front page:

 

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And the navel-gazing piece:

 

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Yeah yeah – I’m Spartacus. Lede:

It’s not exactly the resume-enhancer I’d have picked for myself — “defense witness for Whitey Bulger.”20130601howie

But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it either. And I’m not sure how serious Whitey’s lawyers are. Maybe they’re just trying to keep me and the Globe reporters out of the courtroom.

There’s an old saying in the law: If you have the facts, pound the facts. If you have the law, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.

Hey, J.W. Carney, lay off that table. Put your shoe back on.

 

Carr says he’ll probably “be relieved of my awesome responsibilities as a defense witness Monday, when the feds and Whitey’s lawyers make their final motions.”

That’s a relief, eh? He can then go back to “watching Whitey every step of the way” yak yak yak.

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