March 19, 2015
Unless the hardreading staff’s memory fails us, the Boston Herald (especially Tom Mashberg) did yeoman’s work in the wake of the Great Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery in 1990.
And unless our eyes fail us, the fartsy local tabloid has published exactly nothing about the 25th anniversary of The Big Snatch.
Plug Boston Herald Gardner Museum into the Googletron and you get one lame Associated Press piece.
Boston museum marks 25 years since infamous art theft
BOSTON — It’s been called the biggest art heist in U.S. history, perhaps the biggest in the world. But 25 years later, the theft of 13 works from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains unsolved.
The theft has spawned books, rumors and speculation about who was responsible — and multiple dead ends.
Yet authorities and museum officials remain hopeful, noting that stolen art almost always gets returned — it just sometimes takes a generation or so.
“Although a quarter-century has passed since the art was stolen, we have always been determined to recover it and we remain optimistic that we will,” said Anne Hawley, the Gardner’s director, who was in charge at the time of the theft.
Good for them. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe has been on the Gardner anniversary like Brown on Williamson.
Representative samples:
Not to mention Bill McKeen’s review of Stephen Kurkjian’s Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist last weekend.
But . . . nothing in the Herald.
Paging Tom Mashberg. Paging Mr. Tom Mashberg.
P.S. Don’t bother linking – Mashberg’s pieces are all archived. Translation: Give the Herald $3.95 a pop.
That’s just wrong.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Anne Hawley, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, fartsy local tabloid, Gardner heist, Googletron, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, like Brown on Williamson, Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist, Stephen Kurkjian, The Big Snatch, Tom Mashberg, William McKeen | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 18, 2015
Well, not exactly that specifically, but still . . .
As you splendid readers might remember (c’mon, it was only yesterday), the hardreading staff couldn’t help but note the fuddy local tabloid’s tut-tutting about Gov. Charlie Baker’s St. Patrick’s Day skit lampooning the MBTA (Maybe Better Tomorrow, Alright?) and its snow woes.
Representative sample from yesterday’s front page:
Today, Herald columnist Joe Fitzgerald essentially told his bosses to put a sock in it.
Listen to Charlie and just lighten up, everybody
Charlie Baker, this one’s for you.
If you saw yesterday’s Herald, you read of the governor’s give-me-a-break response to knee-jerk critics who charged he should not have made lighthearted references to dysfunction at the T three days ago at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Southie.
“If you can’t poke fun at yourself,” he scoffed, “you’re not getting it.”
Too often the jokes on Beacon Hill are on us, which is what made Baker’s slapstick such a breath of fresh air.
As opposed, presumably, to all the hot air coming from the umbrage-industrial complex.
Let’s just hope Fitzgerald got the last word on this idiotic riff. We’re pretty sure the Heraldniks can come up with a different idiotic riff without too much trouble.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Charlie Baker, fuddy local tabloid, Heraldniks, Joe Fitzgerald, Maybe Better Tomorrow Alright?, MBTA, St. Patrick's Day breakfast | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 18, 2015
No question: Boston.com has had its troubles lately.
And here comes more. From Boston Herald scribe Jessica Heslam’s column in today’s edition of the failly local tabloid:
Boston.com lowers the bar
Another kerfuffle after Southie
post: ‘Every day is a drunk day’
One day after a new editor took charge to impose standards at the Boston Globe’s beleaguered Boston.com, the website is drawing fire again — this time for posting a story that stated, “Every day is a drunk day in Southie.”
Headlined “True Life: I Was a Bartender In Southie During the St. Paddy’s Day Parade,” the post was written by Boston.com wire staff writer Jamie Loftus, who wrote about her experience at a South Boston restaurant during Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.
“Every day is a drunk day in Southie, but St. Paddy’s Day runs by a completely separate set of laws,” wrote Loftus, whose website bio says she is also a “standup and sketch performer.” “Sure, the tips are good, but servers earn every cent when it comes to dealing with the drunk masses first thing in the morning.”
Money quote: “I’m surprised such bigoted views are still tolerated at Boston.com,” said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston).
There’s also a tsk-tsk from former Boston mayor/current Herald contributor Ray Flynn, but it’s not worth repeating.
What is worth repeating: Boston.com needs some serious adult supervision.
Either that, or the Boston Globe should tear the sheets with Buston.com.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, boston.com, Buston.com, failly local tabloid, Jamie Loftus, Jessica Heslam, Ray Flynn, South Boston, Southie, St. Patrick's Day, Stephen Lynch | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 17, 2015
The faulty (but still fáilte) local tabloid is giving the umbrage-industrial complex a bad name. For the second day in a row, the Boston Herald is mewling about the so-called jokes at this year’s St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.
Start with yesterday’s Herald:
Baker teams with T chief to yuk it up over rail fail
Gov. Charlie Baker’s appearance alongside embattled MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott in a skit goofing on the transit system’s winter woes got a chilly reception from some who say it runs counter to Baker’s image as a reformer of the troubled authority.
“I think it would be prudent to try to avoid making a joke out of it,” said David Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute, who noted that the commuter rail is still operating on a reduced schedule.
“This was a mistake for him. It’s in bad taste. It’s not amusing to people who are still putting up with the inconvenience of a situation that’s gone on for weeks now, well beyond the period when we had a lot of snow.”
The piece included a different critique from one local solon: “[A]ll of these highly produced skits seem to be supplanting the genuineness of the event as it had been in years past,” state Sen. Robert Hedlund said. “It’s become more of an over-the-top production.”
As has the Herald’s rail fail crusade. Today’s front page, lower left:
Story inside:
Baker defends jokes
‘If you can’t poke fun at yourself, you’re not getting it’
Gov. Charlie Baker is standing by his MBTA skit at South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast — and doubled down last night at another holiday dinner in Lowell, where he mocked the transit agency’s dysfunctional commuter rail line.
“It was an opportunity for all of us to sort of poke fun at ourselves, and let’s face it, we all know it’s been a long winter. The MBTA had some issues we worked pretty hard with them to fix,” Baker told the Herald last night. “If you can’t poke fun at yourself, you’re 
not getting it.”
Baker drew some chuckles at the St. Patrick’s Day fete in Lowell, when he joked that during the height of the storms he would be told a number of commuter rail engines were ready to go the next day — only to see that number shrink the following morning.
“I was like, what are these things, teenagers? ‘I got up this morning, Dad looked at me kind of funny. I was out drinking last night. I’m sorry.’ … I wish I was kidding, but the simple truth is the main reason we had so much trouble with the commuter rail is because inside those big, brawny locomotives beats the heart of a 16-year-old,” Baker said.
Now that’s not funny.
The frosty local tabloid also got chilly about some gag props.
Newly minted Attorney General Maura Healey also drew some heat for holding up several fake subpoenas at the Sunday breakfast, and jokingly telling lawmakers in the crowd, “Some of you might be familiar with these. So laugh.”
Santa Clara University Law School professor Margalynne Armstrong found the joke inappropriate for the state’s top lawwoman.
“She needs to make sure she gives the office the respect it deserves. It’s important to not treat her power lightly,” Armstrong said. “The decent thing to do would be to apologize. And it should be a real apology.”
Really, where are they finding these folks?
Regardless, new motto for the Herald: Erin Go Blah!
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Beacon Hill Institute, Beverly Scott, Boston Herald, Charlie Baker, David Tuerck, Erin Go Blah!, faulty local tabloid, frosty local tabloid, Linda Dorcena Forry, Margalynne Armstrong, Maura Healey, MBTA, Robert Hedlund, Santa Clara University Law School, St. Patrick's Day breakfast | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 16, 2015
Michael R. Kennedy (BFD Ladder 15, Engine 33) died in last year’s tragic Back Bay fire at the age of 33. There’s a reason this memorial ad for him appears in today’s Boston Herald and not the Boston Globe.
You know why.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: BFD Ladder 15, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Engine 33, Holbrook, Michael Ryan Kennedy, Paul Kennedy | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 14, 2015
Well the hardreading staff opened up the old emailbag and here’s what poured out:
This week, The Boston Globe stands with the Patriot Ledger, the Boston Herald, and all of GateHouse Media Massachusetts in an unprecedented, coordinated condemnation of Secretary of State William Galvin’s rulings on the state’s public records law.
These newspapers will each publish editorials on open-records issues as part of a unique statewide collaboration amongst these news organizations. The Boston Globe’s editorial, now available online at BostonGlobe.com, will run in the print edition of the Sunday Boston Globe on March 15th.
Sneak peek:
With Mass. public records law in tatters, it’s time for reform
WHEN AN ordinary citizen requests basic government records in Massachusetts, he or she often faces frustrating delays and opacity. The Commonwealth has remained notoriously weak in providing public records, since the laws governing them are essentially toothless, and thus easily ignored.
Recent rulings, however, have made a bad situation intolerably worse. By interpreting regulations governing the privacy of criminal records too broadly, Secretary of State William Galvin’s office has established the police as the arbiters and censors of arrest records. In one recent case described in a story this week by Globe reporter Todd Wallack, Galvin’s office ruled that Boston police can withhold the names of five police officers who were caught driving drunk.
The Boston Herald ran its editorial in today’s edition, which – thanks to the unusual calculus of the Herald’s circulation – actually might have a higher readership than tomorrow’s.
Time for ‘Sunshine’
So here it is the eve of Sunshine Week and we in Massachusetts have precious little to celebrate.
With every passing day the state’s public records law — never one of the best in the nation, but hardly in the sorry state it finds itself today — is being nickel-and-dimed to death by regulations and the bureaucrats who interpret them.
Case in point, a series of recent rulings by the secretary of state’s office that effectively put off limits to the press and the public a host of information about arrests and criminal records.
We credit the reporting of The Boston Globe’s Todd Wallack with bringing this situation to light in an article in Wednesday’s edition. And today we stand with our colleagues at the Globe, the Patriot Ledger (and others in the GateHouse Media family) that are running similar editorials — in condemning a practice that threatens not just the ability of the press to do its job but public safety as well.
We really are close to the end times when the frosty local tabloid gives the Globe credit for anything.
Then again, the Patriot Ledger also credits Wallack in its editorial, which begins this way:
Giving police discretion to keep public arrest records secret is criminal
The Patriot Ledger stands with the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and GateHouse Media against Galvin’s rulings on state’s public records law
Massachusetts police now have sweeping discretion to decide which criminal records they will – and will not – release to the public, according to a series of rulings made by Secretary of State William Galvin.
That level of discretion should not exist.
Police should never have the power to shield the identities of those they arrest or keep information about arrests secret. Given their role in our society, police should always be transparent – most especially when one of their own is charged with a crime.
Further on: “In a March 11 Globe article, “With Mass. OK, police withhold criminal records,” Todd Wallack reports Galvin’s office “decided that many records related to criminal charges are exempt from the Massachusetts public records law, giving individual police chiefs and other officials the power to decide what to release or keep secret …”
The Patriot Ledger calls the triple-teaming “an unprecedented, coordinated condemnation of Galvin’s rulings on the state’s public records law.”
We doubt this coordination will become a regular feature in the local press, but nice to see precedent broken every now and again.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, frosty local tabloid, GateHouse Media, Massachusetts public records law, Patriot Ledger, Secretary of State, Todd Wallack, William Galvin | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 13, 2015
From our Five-Ring Monte desk
Nice his ‘n’ her columns in today’s local dailies about the latest hijinks from the high-rolling Boston 2024 machers.
Ladies first. The Boston Globe’s Shirley Leung gives the 2024niks a front-page dopeslap for “acting like a private club.”
The secrets boomerang on Games organizers
The Boston Olympic movement hit a new low this week, and even ringleader John Fish would have a hard time arguing with that.
That would explain all the mea culpas.
“There were some mistakes in communication,” acknowledged Fish, the chief executive of Suffolk Construction, in a lengthy phone interview.
The mistake, of course, was not communicating, but why get technical about it.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, Howie Carrtoon’s column gives the Boston 2024 boyos a much harder time.
Let hack Games begin at St. Pat’s feed
Will Boston 2024 set up a booth at Halitosis Hall on Sunday morning so that all the hacks can fill out their applications for gainful unemployment at the next Big Dig?
The St. Patrick’s Day breakfast — what better place to recruit yet more indolent dolts and layabouts who need no-heavy-lifting jobs 
(as opposed to work)?
Come Sunday, John Fish, the unelected pooh-bah of this fiasco, can personally greet the payroll charlies as they stumble into the BCEC.
If you “work” at the MBTA, boys, no need to fill out any of these intrusive forms. Your bona fides are in order. Have you lads been to visit your Uncle Whitey lately?
You can probably fill in the rest of the hacky local tabloid rant. Of course if you want some facts about the Boston 2024 payroll patriots, you’ll have to look elsewhere. The hardreading staff recommends Adam Vaccaro’s piece at Boston.com that compares local Olympic spending to previous bids by Chicago and New York. The numbers are very instructive. Not to get technical about it.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adam Vaccaro, BCEC, Boston 224, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, boston.com, Chicago 2016, five-ring monte, hacky local tabloid, Howie Carr(toon), John Fish, MBTA, No Boston Olympics, NYC2012, Shirley Leung, St. Patrick's Day, Sufflk Construction | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 12, 2015
A severe case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome has flared up once again at the frothing local tabloid. This latest pooh-pooh platter features a refried interview, a retread ranter, a syndicated drone, and a quick-draw artist. Nice bridge group, eh?
Start with the refried interview:
Yes, that’s the same Andrew Card the Herald announced it’s partnering up with for New Hampshire 2016 presidential coverage. Cozy, yeah?
Moving on, the Herald pulls former contributor Michael Graham out of mothballs to add his two cents.
This is why Hillary gives me a headache
I’ve made a lot of money off the Clintons. My first week as a radio talk host was the same week the world learned the name Monica Lewinsky. All I had to do was say “Bill Clinton” into the mic and my phone lines
exploded. My career was launched.
At the end of his presidency, I published a book titled, “Clinton and Me: How Eight Years of a Pants-Free President Changed My Nation, My Family And My Life.” It sold a lot of copies.
So I’m not a Clinton hater per se. But I do know what “is” means. I know how sex works. And I know how to send an email. And these facts make it very difficult to believe anything coming out of the Clintons’ mouths.
And etc.
Next up: Jonah Goldberg, a man who sets the bar for syndication limbo-low.
Email flap pushes Clinton off pedestal
In the wake of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fairly disastrous press conference at the United Nations on Tuesday, 
there’s only one conclusion shared by all parties: This was not how it was supposed to go.
This was supposed to be the month Clinton led with her chief selling point: her gender. She had put together a whole “I Am Woman, Hear Me Bore” speaking tour in which women’s issues — particularly the women’s issues that poll well among women who care a lot about women’s issues — would be the main subject.
The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation unveiled a big foofaraw over Hillary’s “No Ceilings” campaign. What a wonderfully convenient theme for Mrs. Clinton’s massive and mysterious foundation, given that smashing the “highest glass ceiling” — i.e., the presidency — is the central rationale of her planned presidential bid.
And etc. etc.
To top it all off, a Jerry Holbert cartoon:
From our Great Editorial Cartoon Artists Think Alike desk
Here’s what Dan Wasserman has in today’s Boston Globe:
Okay – we’re done with this Hillter Skillter stuff.
For now.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Card, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Clinton Derangement Syndrome, Clinton Foundation, Dan Wasserman, Franklin Pierce University, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Hillter Skillter, Jerry Holbert, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Graham, pooh-pooh platter, United Nations | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 10, 2015
The local dailies are currently on Boston 2024, the high-rolling Olympic wannabe outfit, like Brown on Williamson – especially in the matter of who’s getting paid what.
Today Boston hits the Dailies Double, with both papers front-paging the buckraking at the Olympic trough.
Boston Globe:
Olympic bid panel offers salary data
Patrick to earn $7,500 per day during travels
Former governor Deval Patrick will earn $7,500 a day for occasional travel as a global ambassador for Boston’s Olympic bid, selling the city and its vision for the Games to the International Olympic Committee, according to salary data released Monday by local 
Olympic planners, who say they do not know how often Patrick would be on the job.
The local Olympic bid committee, Boston 2024, which is funded by private donations, is also paying $1,390,500 in annual staff salary, with six of 10 salaried employees making more than $100,000 a year. Chief executive Rich Davey topped the list at $300,000.
Mark Arsenault’s piece features other hauls as well: “Boston 2024 is paying $44,000 a month to communications consultants, including $15,000 each to Northwind Strategies — overseen by former Patrick aide Doug Rubin — and Keyser Public Strategies, whose president, Will Keyser, was a key strategist in Governor Charlie Baker’s winning campaign.”
And: “The committee also has monthly contracts, for $10,000 each, with William Coyne Jr. and Jack Hart — well-connected lobbyists with South Boston ties.”
And: “Nikko Mendoza, who was Patrick’s director of operations, is vice president for engagement and external affairs, making $120,000 a year, according to Boston 2024.”
That’s a lotta dough-re-mi, eh?
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it gets even worse.
Inside, the fiscally local tabloid features this handy clip ‘n’ save pay sheet:
Do we see a pattern emerging here? Boston 2024 operates clandestinely, local media force the issue on some issue, Boston 2024 forks over some information. Time to stock up on crowbars.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston 2024, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee, Brown on Williamson, Charlie Baker, Dailies Double, Deval Patrick, Doug Rubin, fiscally local tabloid, five-ring monte, International Olympic Committee, Jack Hart, John Walsh, Mark Arsenault, Marty Walsh, Nikko Mendoza, No Boston Olympics, Rich Davey, Will Keyser, William Coyne Jr. | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 8, 2015
Both Boston dailies take on the machers piling up at Boston 2024, the bulldozing bunch trying to bring the Olympic Games to town nine years hence. But the papers have different bigwigs to target.
The Boston Sunday Globe gives the cudgel to Metro columnist Yvonne Abraham, who drops the hammer on Mistah Mayah.
Too close for comfort
You can’t be both cheerleader and watchdog.
Mayor Marty Walsh was initially skeptical about a Boston Olympics, promising to protect the city’s interests as assorted bigs pursued a 2024 Games. Now he’s the Games’ booster in chief.
“Make no mistake, we are in this to win it: to bring the Olympic Games to Boston, along with the immense global investment and community benefits that come with it,” he said at Wednesday’s annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
Walsh and Boston 2024 are now one. He has fully melded his operation with the one run by John Fish and other titans pushing the Games.
Abraham’s conclusion: “[Marty Walsh] now owns the bid, and all that comes with it, good or bad . . . The mayor has leapt from the Olympic high board. No turning back now.”
Of course, there’s no water in the pool – just a bunch of double-talk – so that doesn’t bode well for anyone.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it’s former Gov. Patrick who’s Devalued.
Page One:
Inside, Patrick gets the expensive two-page spread (with special bonus Inexplicable Little Green Numbers!).
This Olympic bid has all the earmarks of classic crony capitalism: The high-priced array of usual suspects, the sleight-of-hand secrecy, the see-no-evil stonewalling – the whole megillah.
The biggest Olympic event of all would be if any of these characters dealt straight with the people of Boston for two minutes at a time.
So far, the prospects don’t look good.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston 2024, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Charlie Baker, Deval Patrick, five-ring monte, Marty Walsh, Olympic Games, Yvonne Abraham | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 