As the hardreading staff has duly noted, Boston Herald communist Joe Battenfeld has been on Suffolk University’s slow-motion defenestration of President Margaret McKenna like Brown on Williamson.
In a new escalation of the nasty war over control of Suffolk University, the school’s trustees are launching an independent probe into allegations of misspending by President Margaret McKenna after she balked at cooperating with an internal investigation, sources told the Herald.
The trustees’ decision to investigate came after another attorney engaged by the board concluded the school had to “thoroughly investigate” charges of fiscal impropriety against McKenna brought by public relations maven George Regan after she terminated his longtime contract with Suffolk.
Yeah – those lessons in Regan-omics will get you every time. Turns out in this case, McKenna is collateral damage in the PR poobah’s gold rush.
[Board of Trustees Chair Andrew] Meyer told trustees last week that the school’s executive committee sought an outside opinion from a New York attorney, Monica Barrett, on how to respond to Regan’s charges and his demand for compensation for being fired.
Barrett’s advice to conduct a serious investigation prompted trustees to approach McKenna, sources said, but she didn’t immediately give them access to her expense records. But sources close to McKenna strongly deny she’s refusing to cooperate.
Crosstown, the Boston Globe had nothing on the story in today’s print edition, but reporter Joshua Miller picked up on it in his Political Happy Hour blog post this afternoon:
UNENDING SUFFOLK U BOARD DRAMA, by Joe Battenfeld on page 3 of today’s Boston Herald: “In a new escalation of the nasty war over control of Suffolk University, the school’s trustees are launching an independent probe into allegations of misspending by President Margaret McKenna after she balked at cooperating with an internal investigation, sources told the Herald. …” http://bit.ly/21UJqyL
Hey – a credit and a link?
They must be pretty happy at the firsty local tabloid, eh?
James “Whitey” Bulger’s Social Security benefits, his replica Stanley Cup ring, and $50,000 he stashed in a London safe deposit box have been added to a growing pile of assets that were seized from the gangster and will be divided among the families of his victims, according to court filings.
Federal prosecutors urged a judge Monday to issue an order paving the way for an auction by the US Marshals Service of dozens of items seized from Bulger’s Santa Monica, Calif., apartment following his capture in June 2011.
The widow of Revere nightclub owner Richard Castucci — who rubbed elbows with Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack until James “Whitey” Bulger ordered him shot in the head 40 years ago — will reap “peanuts” from a class-action settlement with the feds and little more from an auction of the mob kingpin’s worldly possessions, her lawyer claims.
“Mrs. Castucci just wanted to get this chapter in her life closed,” Sandra Castucci’s lawyer Michael Laurano said yesterday after the Herald reported U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz had petitioned a federal judge to order the sale of “any and all other personal property” the FBI seized from Bulger’s Santa Monica, Calif., hideout in 2011. The lots are to include a replica ring from the 1986 Stanley Cup championship, art, furniture, electronics, clothing, books and coins, but not dozens of firearms, a grenade, a stun gun, eight knives and ammunition fated to be destroyed.
Back at the Boston Globe, another widow was more . . . measured.
Patricia Donahue, whose husband, Michael, was shot to death by Bulger in 1982, said she was pleased that the government was continuing to track Bulger’s assets and surprised to hear that the notorious gangster was eligible for Social Security.
“I never knew the man worked,” Donahue said. “Nothing surprises me when it comes to ‘Whitey’ Bulger.”
The Boston Herald’s normally ignorable columnist Adriana (Trumpless GOP Can Kiss Me Goodbye) Cohen, who is almost as big a Trump Chump as her work husband Howie Carr, caused quite a rumpus on CNN yesterday when she went Chernobyl on Ted Cruziac Amanda Carpenter over his alleged extramarital affairs – including with Carpenter.
A leading member of the Trump fan club derailed a CNN segment Friday afternoon by accusing former Ted Cruz spokeswoman Amanda Carpenter of having an affair with the Texan senator. Asked by CNN anchor Kate Bolduan whether she thinks Trump is “ready to move on” from sexualized attacks on Cruz’s wife, Boston Herald columnist Adriana Cohen responded: “Oh, absolutely I think we should move on. Where we should move to is The National Enquirer story that was reported that Ted Cruz has had affairs with five mistresses, including you’ve been named as well, Amanda.” An incensed Bolduan shot back: “I don’t think that’s ‘moving on’ at all.” Unfazed, Cohen repeated the allegation, and then pointedly asked Carpenter: “Will you denounce this story or will you confirm it?” Carpenter called the allegations “smut” and said they were “categorically false.”
There was a hearing before representatives of the Massachusetts Public Health Council, which has final authority over the project to replace the garden with a billion-dollar expansion.
And Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey had “declined a request by opponents to block Boston Children’s Hospital from building an 11-story addition where the beloved Prouty Garden currently sits,” according to a Boston Globe report.
The skunk at the party is the chainsaws that have ALREADY started taking down trees and bushes in the Prouty Garden, before the new building is even approved; this shows beyond a shadow of a doubt there is a very strong and real desire to destroy Prouty, whether a building goes up or not. The “Friends of Prouty” failed to anticipate this, and did not get a restraining order against the hospital to prevent this destruction. Even if the new building is denied by DPH, by the time the decision is made, what’s left of Prouty will be dirt and saw dust.
Interesting Page One compare ‘n’ contrast in today’s Boston dailies: The Globe front-pages a story the Herald doesn’t have at all, and vice versa.
Initially, we went to the papers’ respective search engines to double-check our first impression. Plug “Owen Labrie” into the Herald search box and you get this:
It’s a bit of a jumble – the most recent story is listed fourth. But it’s the Library of Congress compared to what pops up in the Globe when you plug virtually anything into its search box. The Framingham rape from the Herald front page gets no hits, but plug in, say, “David Ortiz” and you get this:
Click on that first link and you get a hockey story at the bottom of which is this:
So, to recap: One search, two clicks, still no David Ortiz.
Try it for yourself. It’s crazy-making.
And entirely crazy: a non-searchable newspaper website.
Yesterday Qatar Airways launched nonstop flights between Logan International Airport and Doha, the capital of Qatar. So yesterday a human rights group launched an ad campaign in the Boston Globe calling for a boycott of the airline.
The Alliance for Workers Against Repression Everywhere, or AWARE, began running local radio spots last week “denouncing alleged human rights violations against workers by the airline and the State of Qatar, which owns it,” according to a Globe report.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn – among others – vociferously protested the portrayal of him in the movie Spotlight. As Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen wrote last November:
After seeing the film at the Loews theater across from Boston Common, [Dunn] stepped onto the sidewalk and threw up.
The movie sickened him because he is portrayed as someone who minimized the suffering of those who were sexually abused, as someone who tried to steer Globe reporters away from the story, as someone invested in the coverup.
Dunn’s lawyer subsequently “sent a letter to the filmmakers, demanding that the offending scene be deleted from the movie.”
Well, that hasn’t happened, but this has, as Mark Shanahan reports in today’s Globe:
B.C. dialogue fiction, ‘Spotlight’ studio says
Open Road Films, the studio that distributed the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” issued a statement Tuesday acknowledging that dialogue attributed in the movie to Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn was fictional.
When “Spotlight” was released last fall, Dunn expressed outrage, saying that he was depicted as someone who downplayed the suffering of people who were sexually abused by priests. He enlisted a lawyer to contact Open Road and demand the removal of a scene in the movie in which his character discusses whether previous administrators at Boston College High School were aware of sexual abuse there.
At issue was a scene depicting Dunn in a 2002 meeting with Globe reporters Walter “Robby” Robinson and Sacha Pfeiffer (played by Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams). The topic: Allegations of sexual abuse at BC High. The offending dialogue from the character playing Dunn: “It’s a big school, Robby, you know that. And we’re talking about seven alleged victims over, what, eight years?”
The Globe piece includes this statement from Open Road Films:
“As is the case with most movies based on historical events, ‘Spotlight’ contains fictionalized dialogue that was attributed to Mr. Dunn for dramatic effect. We acknowledge that Mr. Dunn was not part of the Archdiocesan coverup. It is clear from his efforts on behalf of the victims at BC High that he and the filmmakers share a deep, mutual concern for victims of abuse.”
What the Globe piece does not include is Robinson’s and Pfeiffer’s previous backing of the movie version (tip o’ the pixel to splendid reader Ember2378 for the link). But the Boston Herald’s Jack Encarnacao helpfully fills in the details.
The [studio’s] statement comes after both the Globe’s Walter Robinson and Sacha Pfeiffer said the scene in the movie captured Dunn’s “spirited public relations defense of BC High” during their first Spotlight team interview with him in 2002 during the paper’s probe of clergy sexual abuse.
Robinson and Pfeiffer did not respond to the Herald’s calls seeking comment. We’ll see if anyone else has better luck.
As the hardreading staff has dutifully noted, the Boston Herald has resolutely refused to cover the Boston Globe’s Chernobylesque home delivery meltdown over the past three months.
The Boston Globe is cutting ties with the home delivery company whose problem-plagued takeover of service less than three months ago left thousands of angry customers in Greater Boston without newspapers.
Globe officials said Tuesday that ACI Media Group will soon no longer handle any of its routes. The Long Beach, Calif., company had retained part of the Globe’s business after the delivery debacle and after the newspaper’s decision to give many routes in the area to its previous vendor, Publishers Circulation Fulfillment Inc.
“Transition debacle” should be mother’s milk to the thirsty local tabloid, but . . . nothing.
The Boston Herald has never been shy about mixing promotion and news content, as the hardreading staff has routinely noted. But the stealthy local tabloid is getting bolder and sneakier about it at the same time.
Page 10 of today’s edition:
Notice especially what’s discretely tucked away upper left.
Obviously, U.K.-based intimate apparel retailer Rigby & Peller bought a twofer from the Herald: that print piece and an interview on Boston Herald Radio, a streaming audio service that up to dozens of people hear each day.
(The dicey local tabloid did much the same for the Massachusetts State Lottery last month, renting out both radio and print for a Frosty Cashword promotion.)
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, the Q&A is labeled Sponsored Content, as is the website version. But . . . on the Herald homepage it is not labeled.
We’re guessing the radio interview wasn’t tagged as a paid promotion either. So awkward.
As the hardreading staff noted the other day, the Boston Globe’s GRANT program, which is headed by Boston GlobeSox owner John Henry’s wife Linda Pizzuti and which “enables readers to support New England’s non-profits by choosing which ones are given free advertising space in The Boston Globe,” has always struck us as more sizzle than steak.
After its launch two years ago, the program pretty much dropped off our radar screen – until last week, when Thursday’s edition of the Globe featured this ad for Boston Catholic Appeal (which ranks #160 on the GRANT Nonprofit Leaderboard with a whopping $255 in GRANT Vouchers – hardly enough to pay for the two column (3.79″) x 3″ ad).
It struck us that we hadn’t really seen many GRANT ads over the past two years, so we wrote to the GRANT folks and asked if there might be a list of groups who received free Globe advertising in exchange for their vouchers.
Today we received this reply from a marketing coordinator in the Globe’s Circulation department:
Thanks for reaching out to us here at GRANT! If you would like information about a certain non-profit, then please let me know. I am not at liberty to send a list of all the organizations, dates and examples. Thanks.
Always loved that “not at liberty” formulation; we’ve used it ourselves on more than one occasion.
Regardless, in this case it means mind your own business.
In our research travels checking the GRANT program out, we did notice a couple of non-profits – the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and Project Bread – that had issued pleas to their members to participate in the voucher system. (No doubt there are others who did the same – those are just the two we saw.)
They’re our next stop on this madcap adventure. As always, we’ll keep you posted.
President Margaret McKenna after she balked at cooperating with an internal investigation, sources told the Herald.
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