From our Walt Whitman desk
You know that visit to Boston Pope John Paul II made in 1979? Turns out it was all the Boston Herald’s doing.
Page 6 of today’s feisty local tabloid:
Close-up:
So forever-orange-tinted George Regan says it was, well, George Regan who got it done back in ’79.
And orange we glad he did.
Badda-boom.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Boston Herald American, Don Forst, George Regan, John Paul II, Kevin White, Walt Whitman | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
If you’re looking for the good dirt on Aaron Hernandez in the local dailies today, the Boston Herald is the place to go.
Page 2 of the feisty local tabloid:
Past run-ins paint image of big-headed Aaron Hernandez
Aaron Hernandez’s repeated high-handed brushes with the law — including one just last January when he allegedly dropped his own celebrity name in a bid to have a statie go easy on his pal — suggest a sense of entitlement dating to the murder defendant’s days as a Florida Gator.
“Trooper, I’m Aaron Hernandez. It’s OK,” State Trooper Eric Papkee reported he was told by the passenger after he pulled over an SUV that had been chasing a station wagon and weaving at speeds of up to 105 mph on Jan. 28 on the Southeast Expressway. Hernandez’s buddy Alexander Bradley — who is now suing Hernandez, claiming he shot him in the face a month later after a night of revelry at a Florida strip club — was at the wheel in the Massachusetts incident and was hit with a second offense drunken driving charge.
Good friend, yeah?
Then there was the 2007 rumpus when Hernandez punched a Florida restaurant manager (rupturing his eardrum) who had the nerve to ask Hernandez to pay for his drinks. Then-college teammate Testament Tim Tebow tried, but apparently failed, to keep Hernandez out of that jam.
More dish? Try the Track:
Hernandez ‘fans’ draw scorn
He may be charged with ruthlessly gunning down a pal in cold blood — and be under investigation for a double murder — but chicks still dig Aaron Hernandez!
Since his arrest, the Twitterverse has been flooded with missives from smitten ladies who still find the former Patriots tight end attractive, despite the heinous crime he is charged with committing. And a Facebook page called Free Aaron Hernandez with the tagline “Innocent Until Proven Guilty” had nearly 3,000 “Likes” yesterday.
“Aaron I pray for you every night & day. I hope everything works out in the end for you,” posted Krystale Anne, one of the scores of Facebook friends who sent out good wishes to the imprisoned ex-Patriot.
And etc.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, it’s all pretty pedestrian:
Broken mirror sought in Aaron Hernandez case
They will not say why they want it, but investigators remain keenly interested in finding a side mirror from the Nissan Altima believed driven by former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez on the day prosecutors said he allegedly orchestrated the killing of Dorchester resident Odin Lloyd.
Police have been searching for the mirror since the early days of the investigation, after Lloyd was shot to death early on the morning of June 17 in an industrial park near Hernandez’s North Attleborough home.
Not exactly mirror images the Boston dailies, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Aaron Hernandez, Alexander Bradley, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, broken mirror, Free Aaron Hernandez, Inside Track, Testament Tim Tebow | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
As the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider noted earlier, the Times-Industrial Complex rendered a split decision on Showtime’s new series Ray Donovan. New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley found it “grandiose, predictable and painfully slow,” while kissin’ cousin Boston Globe critic Matthew Gilbert considered it “fantastic.”
So the hardworking staff went to a tiebreaker: Wall Street Journal critic Dorothy Rabinowitz, who called it a “hard-bitten and buoyant tale.”
But then came Boston Herald critic Mark Perigard, who hated it.
So we needed another tiebreaker.
Which was me and the Missus.
Our verdict:
Meh.
The Missus wants to stipulate that we love Liev Schreiber, but the rest of the cast does a lot of scenery-chewing, and Jon Voight has had so much cosmetic surgery, it now qualifies as a head transplant.
Regardless, we’ll give it one more chance.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Alessandra Stanley, Boston Herald, Campaign Outsider, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Jon Voight, Liev Schreiber, Mark Perigard, Matthew Gilbert, Ray Donovan, Showtime, Times-Industrial Complex, Wall Street Journal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
Monday coverage of the James “Whitey” Bulger trial is always challenging for the local dailies, there being no weekend court sessions. So enterprise stories are the order of the day for both papers.
Start with the Boston Globe, which features Page One portraits of the three sketch artists chronicling the trial.
The three freelancers – Jane Flavell Collins of Duxbury, Margaret Small of Cambridge, and Christine Cornell , a New Jersey artist drawing the Bulger trial for CNN – all use binoculars to get up close to their subjects for their pastel sketches. And all three have good stories to tell.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it’s a different side of Bulger that’s on display.
Track Gal Gayle Fee has the inside story on two letters purportedly written by Bulger to a South Boston man last year.
Whitey Bulger’s mail from jail
Alleged letters up for sale by dealer
In letters purportedly written by accused crime lord James “Whitey” Bulger to a man in South Boston, Bulger gave fatherly advice, waxed nostalgic about his days in Alcatraz and insisted that he offered to plead guilty to all charges — including 19 murders — if the feds would only free his ladylove Catherine Greig.
“I offered since day one to plead guilty to all crimes I’m accused of if they free Catherine but answer is ‘No.’ They want their ‘Big Circus Trial,’” Bulger wrote in a pair of letters that are currently being offered for sale by Saugus memorabilia dealer Phil Castinetti.
Our favorite part: Bulger pining away for the good old days in Alcatraz:
“The healthy salt air,” he wrote, “open front 9 by 5 foot barred cells and eating in a mess hall — yard with weights to work out with and lots of good convicts. None of that here [in the Plymouth jail].”
Yeah – just can’t find good convicts around here anymore.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Alcatraz, Anthony Cardinale, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Catherine Greig, Gayle Fee, James "Whitey" Bulger, Jane Flavell Collins, Margaret Small. Christine Cornell, Phil Castinetti, Track Gal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 