October 22, 2013
Well the hardreading staff unfolded the Wall Street Journal the other day and here’s what fell out.
(Photo courtesy of: The Missus.)
Okay, so we’re gonna open the envelope now.
EXCLUSIVE OFFER
By Invitation Only
You are among the select few entitled to receive your first 12 weeks of the Wall Street Journal – in both print and digital form – for only $1 a week.
Uh-huh – Herald readers will take the Journal (forget about one dollar a week – try $700 a year) right around the time Barack Obama double-dates with Ted Cruz.
File under: The WSJ should just set its money on fire.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Barack Obama, Boston Herald, exclusive offer, is to laugh, Ted Cruz, the Missus, Wall Street Journal | 
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October 21, 2013
A woman buying memorabilia at Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration told the New York Times (roughly) “When we want to celebrate something, we do it with merchandise.”
Say hello to your 2013 American League Champion Red Sox.
Those two ads ran in both local dailies.
But only the Boston Globe ran these two:
Oh, yeah – and throw in this NESN ad for good measure.
So, what to make of this lopsided show of Soxabilia? Are Globe readers better fans than Herald readers?
Or just richer?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2013 American League Champions, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dick's Sporting Goods, Kohl's, Modell's Sporting Goods, Red Sox, Soxabilia, Sports Authority | Permalink
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October 21, 2013
From our Or You Could Just Set Your Money on Fire desk
The hardreading staff had a neighbor some years ago who objected to our Boston Herald home subscription on the grounds that a Herald on our front porch “reduced property values.”
Yeesh.
But now we’re wondering about the value of the Herald itself.
Page One of Sunday’s home-delivered feisty local tabloid:
Sports section Page One:
(Photos courtesy of the Missus)
Sure, later editions (and the electronic edition) of the Herald sported this front page:
But that didn’t do the hardreading staff any good.
The thing is, as home subscribers we’re the guaranteed money for the fusty local tabloid. And all 17 of us are getting lousy value for the dollar.
The hardreading staff, for one, is not happy.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, Casino in Limbo, fusty local tabloid, Gronk Is a Go, home delivery, Victorino Lap!, World Series | Permalink
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October 20, 2013
World-Series-bound Red Sox owner John Henry is also newspaper-bound Boston Globe owner John Henry.
But not so fast, says crosstown rival Boston Herald.
Globe holds off closer
Sale with John Henry slides
The John Henry era will soon begin at The Boston Globe — though not as early as originally hoped — as the broadsheet prepares to end 
two decades under the control of its out-of-town overlords.
A source close to the deal told the Herald yesterday that finalizing the purchase and executing the formal transfer of the newspaper from the Times to the Red Sox owner — which had been expected to happen sometime over the weekend — likely won’t take place until next week at the earliest.
Both the Globe and a rep for Henry declined comment yesterday, and a Times spokeswoman did not return calls or emails.
Big surprise there, yeah?
But no surprise here: Others say otherwise.
From NECN:
Money Matters: Henry to close purchase of Boston Globe Saturday
According to the Boston Business Journal, Red Sox Owner John Henry will close on his purchase of the Boston Globe this Saturday. Henry is buying the New England Media Group, including the Globe, from The New York Times. The BBJ said he’ll also pay $65-million, down from the original $70-million bid.
Tiebreaker to come.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, John Henry, NECN, New England Media Group, New York Times, Red Sox, World Series | Permalink
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October 19, 2013
The hardreading staff gets it that Pennant Fever Grips Hub Tabloid (just check out pages 1 through 5, along with the actual Sports section).
But then the feisty local fanzoid goes overboard.
From today’s Back Page:
Uehara among greats? Really?
The guy has 24 saves. Lifetime.
Including his five-out save Thursday night against the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series — which, with Game 6 set for tonight at Fenway Park, moved the Red Sox to within one win of going to the World Series — Uehara has a 0.52 ERA, 24 saves in 26 chances, and a ridiculous 70-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 48 appearances since taking over as closer in mid-June.
That’s a great year, no question. But then to start tossing in names like Eric Gagne (major-league-record 55 consecutive saves) and Trevor Hoffman (601 career saves, second-most all-time) seems a bit premature.
And not to get all such-small-portions on you, but how do you do a whole piece on great closers and never mention Mariano Rivera – the greatest of them all – once?
Chalk this up as a blown save.
P.S. Before anyone says the piece is based on catcher David Ross calling Uehara great (“Yeah,” Ross said yesterday, “I’ve caught a lot of great closers in my career.” Koji Uehara? “Right up there,” he said, never hesitating), that means Uehara among greats should have been in quotes. Otherwise, the Herald owns it.
5 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: ALCS, Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, David Ross, Detroit Tigers, Eric Gagne, Koji Uehara, Mariano Rivera, Pennant Fever grips Hub Tabloid, Trevor Hoffman, World Series | Permalink
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October 18, 2013
Interesting his-and-his guest op-eds in the local dailies today.
Start with MSNBC video savant Chris Matthews in the Boston Globe:
Yes, politics was once friendly
A NEW NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 78 percent of us think the country’s headed in the wrong direction. The true surprise is the 14 percent who think that things are getting better.
Government shutdowns that once amounted to a couple of days are now more than a couple of weeks. And who knows how to measure the possible cost of the threat to stop payment on the national debt?
There was once a man who personified the very opposite of this political dysfunction.
Kirk O’Donnell was chief counsel and partisan consigliore to Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill. He was, by the great man’s own estimate, “hard as a rock.” Young in years, he knew the rules of the old crowd and employed them with brio.
And what was the Golden Rule of politics?
It’s applicable to marriage, work relationships, and most especially to rivalries: “Always be able to talk.”
Yes, well tell that to University of Maryland professor Peter Morici crosstown at the Boston Herald’s op-ed page, who writes this about the end of the government shutdown.
[Obama’s] doomsday rhetoric made the U.S. government appear inept and irresponsible, has eroded the primary standing of U.S. securities in global markets, and will weaken U.S. economic leadership in global forums for many years to come.
Senate negotiators hammered out a bill acceptable to the president that reopened the government and raised the debt ceiling, and House Democrats and moderate Republicans voted for it.
The president’s victory was accomplished through deception and demagoguery, by violating the will of voters expressed in the 2012 congressional elections and the Constitution, and damaging U.S. global standing.
Yeah – don’t see a whole lot of pillow talk happening between those two sides anytime soon.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chris Matthews, GOP, government shutdown, Kirk O'Donnell, MSNBC, Obamacare, Peter Morici, President Obama, Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neill, University of Maryland, video savant | Permalink
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October 17, 2013
Several days ago the hardreading staff posted an item about the Jewish News Service running this ad in the Boston Herald but not the Boston Globe.
We also said we’d try to contact JNS founder (and inveterate publishing bunny) Russel Pergament to ask, among other things, if he’ll be advertising in the Globe anytime soon.
And so we did. Whereupon we had a nice conversation with Pergament, a media dynamo the hardworking staff has known for over three decades, ever since he was founding the Tab newspapers and we were copy chief at Filene’s.
(Best part of that job: We met the Missus.)
Best part of Russel Pergament: He’s entirely unfazed at JNS being depicted “as foaming-at-the mouth right wingers,” as he put it, referring to this Jewish Daily Forward piece.
Instead, he says this:
Even the most left-wing Jewish writers who see Israel as an aggressive Nazi-like state get nervous about reports like this one from Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet [regarding Jewish soldiers purportedly harvesting the organs of Arabs].
Pergament says a dozen papers – including Christian media and secular media that “emphasize the objective nature of the facts we send” – have subscribed to JNS. He says he’s also run ads in The New Republic and a New Britain, CT paper, while the Jerusalem Press and Chicago Tribune have picked up JNS content.
As for the Boston dailies, Pergament says he gets more bang for the buck in the Herald, and that the Herald sales rep called and asked for his business.
Hey, Globeniks – any response?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adam Reilly, Aftonbladet, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Phoenix, Chicago Tribune, Filene's, Jerusalem Press, Jewish News Service, Jewish soldiers harvest Arab organs, JNS, Russel Pergament, Tab newspapers, the Missus, The New Republic | Permalink
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October 16, 2013
From our Walt Whitman desk
Today’s Boston Herald has a swell time patting itself on the back for yet another mention by “Journalism’s own hall of fame” – that would be The Newseum – in its daily Top Ten Front Pages feature.
Under the headline “Sports Stories” there’s this:
When a sports story makes the front page, it usually gets the best play. Just look at today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which devoted half of Page One to the Cardinals’ baseball playoff loss. Of course, newspapers aren’t always so keen to promote defeat. The Indianapolis Star found a way to downplay the Colts’ loss in “Monday Night Football” by focusing on the positive. Go team!
You don’t have to tell the feisty local tabloid twice.
And don’t miss that dig at crosstown rival Boston Globe:
The Herald was the only Boston paper featured in the Top 10 list yesterday. The Herald’s front page was even tweeted out by Red Sox owner John W. Henry.
You know he’s gonna own the Globe too, right?
It doesn’t get much better than that for the Heraldniks.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Big Papi, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, David Ortiz, Gerry Callahan, Heraldniks, John Henry, Michael Silverman, Paul Keaney, Red Sox, The Newseum, Top Ten Front Pages, Walt Whitman | Permalink
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October 14, 2013
From our LOL desk
Mistah Mayah makes an appearance in both local dailies today with a story less believable than Bill Clinton on Saturday night. Start with the Boston Herald :
Menino warns: Endorsements only go so far
The two candidates for mayor fought hard for key endorsements last week — with both Martin J. Walsh and John R. Connolly claiming 
victories in that fight — but the current occupant of City Hall, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said yesterday endorsements aren’t worth the breath they’re uttered on if supporters can’t back it up with votes.
“Endorsements are great to have, but people have to get out and vote. I don’t just say that. When I ran for mayor, I had no endorsements and I won,” Menino, who insists he’s staying neutral, told the Herald, referring to his first race 20 years ago.
But here’s the best part:
Menino maintained yesterday he’ll stay out of the fray.
“Some of my people are with Walsh, some of them are with Connolly,” Menino said. “If anyone comes to me, I say, ‘Do what you want to do. It’s up to you … I don’t run a dictatorship.’ … Unless it gets personal. I don’t intend to get involved in this campaign at all. It’s really great to watch from the sidelines.”
Yeah, and he’s also looking forward to spending more time scrapbooking.
Crosstown, it’s much the same eyewash at the Boston Globe.
In this race, Menino loyalists are on their own
Their arms have hoisted green Mayor Menino signs for 20 years. Their fists have knocked on doors from Oak Square to Neponset.
They have driven sound trucks blasting get-out-the-vote messages in Spanish through Hyde Square and lashed political placards to the fence outside East Boston High School, dressing the polling place for Election Day.
They are the members of Team Menino, the vaunted political machine of Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Some loyalists joined upstart mayoral campaigns as soon as Menino announced in March he would not seek a sixth term. But the mayor’s vow to remain neutral in the 12-candidate preliminary election kept many on the sidelines.
Until now.
Nut graf:
“I said, ‘Do what you want to do,’ ” Menino said in an interview. “It’s not a dictatorship. I have an organization that’s committed to things I believe in in government. They want to make a choice, let them make a choice.”
Yep – they won’t have Tommy to kiss around anymore.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Clinton on Saturday night, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston mayoral race, John Connolly, Marty Walsh, Tom Menino | Permalink
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October 11, 2013
The hardreading staff didn’t know the half of it in its earlier post this morning. Also in today’s Boston Herald, a handful of other shoutouts in the WGBH/David Koch rumpus.
Working our way through the opinion pages from left to right, start with this editorial:
Going cuckoo on Koch
Perhaps we should be accustomed to the lunatic fringe making comparisons between conservatives and, say, the Ku Klux Klan. We confess it’s a bit surprising when a man of the cloth engages in the odious practice, but hey, when it comes to protecting Mother Earth all bets are off!
Segue smoothly to Jerry Holbert’s editorial cartoon:
Toss in a couple of Letters to the Editor:
Opposing views silenced
Just because protesters disagree with David Koch is no reason to shut him down and have him removed from the WGBH board (“Tough climate as WGBH faces protest over board member,” Oct. 10). That’s even if protesters do think they are scientifically correct about climate change, despite the fact that the issue is still being debated and researched and there is no unanimity on it in the scientific community.
A protester is quoted as saying of Koch, “His presence is extremely offensive. People who are actively fighting to destroy the climate should not have equal political voice.” The whole point of free speech in a democracy is so all sides may be heard.
I even support the protesters’ right to make statements that I believe are strident, hysterical and inaccurate. But to be “offended” by someone’s “presence” just because they disagree with you and to demand that their rights be abrogated is a far greater offense.
— Jeffrey Miner, Belmont
Raise the heat on Koch
There is profound irony in the use of the word “heat” in your headline about the grassroots movement to encourage WGBH to sever ties with pollution powerbroker David Koch (“Activists put heat on WGBH to oust donor, board giant,” Oct. 3). Thanks to Koch’s relentless assault on regulations to combat heat-trapping carbon emissions, we are on the verge of a climate cliff far more hazardous than any economic “fiscal cliff.”
Just as Boston will be underwater if we don’t get serious about reducing emissions, WGBH’s credibility will be underwater if the station doesn’t wash its hands of a man whose actions and statements on science contradict the station’s mission of educating and informing the public.
— D. R. Tucker, Brockton
And finish off Kochapalooza with a Michael Graham column:
Koch’s cash trash to libs
David Koch has a lot to learn about tolerance and diversity.
Koch, as every Occupod knows, is one of the infamous Koch Brothers (pronounced “coke,” as in “short for cocaine,’’ as in “white things that kill people!”). The Kochs are, well, they’re just the most dangerous, hateful and awful people in America. They regularly (and hatefully) give away millions of dollars to hospitals, universities, think tanks and, yes, public television.
Specifically, David Koch has given $18 million to support the science show “NOVA” and he sits on the WGBH board.
Liberals are demanding that he be thrown off the board over his political views.
In the name of tolerance and diversity, of course.
And just think: We still have the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider’s Beat the Press Party Bakeoff to look forward to.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Beat the Press Party Bakeoff, Campaign Outsider, D.R. Tucker, David Koch, Jeffrey Miner, Jerry Holbert, Kochapalooza, Ku Klux Klan, Michael Graham, WGBH | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 