Boston Globe ‘Names’ Outs Howie Carr, Stiffs Two-Daily Town

February 10, 2017

Twice this week the hardreading staff has noted that Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, a charter member of the Donald Trump coat holder brigade, is also now a member of Trump’s swanky Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

We also noted that neither Boston daily had reported on Carr’s quantum leap in social status, ending yesterday’s post this way: “Hey – you Namesniks at the Globe: Wanna grab a piece of this?”

Apparently they did, since this appears under Mark Shanahan’s byline in today’s snakey local broadsheet.

Trump backer Howie Carr joins Mar-a-Lago

Conservative talk-show host Howie Carr fancies himself a man of the people, albeit one who went to an exclusive prep school (Deefield Academy), attended a fine liberal arts college (University of North Carolina), and resides in a wealthy Boston enclave (Wellesley). So it should be no surprise that, like any other average Joe, Carr has become a newly-minted member of the Mar-a-Lago Club, President Trump’s posh Palm Beach, Fla., retreat. Politico.com reports that Carr and his second wife, Kathy, are a few of the regular folks who’ve become Mar-a-Lago members since Trump moved into the White House. The Carrs must have really scrimped and saved to be able to swing the club’s initiation fee, which recently doubled to $200,000. We tried to reach Carr on Thursday to talk about the many perks and privileges he’ll be enjoying at Mar-a-Lago, but no luck. The right-wing radio host was an early supporter of Trump’s peculiar brand of populism and their friendship has only grown. Indeed, Carr was among 800 ordinary Americans who spent New Year’s Eve with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club.

 

Politico.com reports? Like all of a sudden you read the Politico Playbook item buried in last Monday’s edition?

C’mon, man – credit where credit’s due, eh?

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Boston Dailies Ignore Howie Carr Joining Mar-a-Lago

February 9, 2017

As the hardreading staff noted the other day, local radio squawker Howie Carr is among Donald Trump’s latest pigeons – sorry, members – at his swanky Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

Funny thing is, neither of local dailies has noted the same.

Carr is a Charter Coat Holder for Trump, and he’s been quick to use his Boston Herald column to Trumpet his bromance with the hairdo-in-chief (see here and here for representative samples). Carr is also fond of casually mentioning his Palm Beach residency, as he did on Monday.

Globe prints fake news in Super Bowl blunder

There’s fake news and then there’s FAKE NEWS!screen-shot-2017-02-09-at-3-02-45-pm

Today’s early edition Boston Globe made a historic blunder with its Super Bowl coverage, running the headline: A BITTER END.

Above it is “Super Bowl LI.” LI meaning “51” in Roman numerals, but now it has another meaning, wouldn’t you say? You can’t have a LIE without LI.

These fake-news collectors’ items are on sale all over Florida. If you’re reading this in at least some parts of the Sunshine State, you can probably still buy one at your local Publix supermarket. (Not in Palm Beach – my neighbor just bought all five copies for me.)

 

But so far, nothing from Carr on his quantum leap in social status. And we still don’t know if Carr got the Coat Holder Discount for the newly calibrated $200,000 Mar-a-Lago membership fee.

Hey – you Namesniks at the Globe: Wanna grab a piece of this?

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Trump Coat Holder Howie Carr Join$ Mar-a-Lago

February 7, 2017

As the hardreading staff has noted, smaller-all-the-time radio personality Howie Carr has been a dedicated Trumpkin from the very start.

(Exhibit A: Carr’s groveling appearance at the Bochanalia that the autoheirotic Ernie Boch Jr. threw for Trump back in 2015.)

Later, there was this fanboy wet kiss in Carr’s Boston Herald column.

Living large at Mar-a-Lago

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — So here was President-elect Donald Trump, in a tuxedo, talking to 800 or so formally dressed guests in the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago Club here on New Year’s Eve.

“Again, I want to thank my members,” he said. “I don’t really care too much about their guests because the ones I really care about are the members. I don’t give a (bleep) about their guests. I just love my members.”

 

Of which Howie Carr is now one, according to Politico Playbook.

— MORE NEW MAR-A-LAGO MEMBERS: Daniel Bouaziz and Sophia Baratashvili, Howie and Kathy Carr, Gil Cohen and Paul Gervais, Jean Doyen De Montaillou and Michael Kovner, Robert and Susan Falk, Diane Lokey Farb, Carol . . .

 

Two questions:

1) Did Carr get the Coat Holder Discount for the newly calibrated $200,000 Mar-a-Lago membership fee?

2) Which local daily will be the first to pick up on Carr’s quantum leap in social status?

We’re guessing the Herald.

But you never know.

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Gatorade to Boston Herald: No Gatorad for You

February 5, 2017

Once again, the thirsty local tabloid can’t get no love from the full-page-ad set.

Exhibit Umpteen: This Gatorade ad on page D12 of today’s Boston Globe.

 

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Drive the Herald nuts graf:

 

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So Gatorade has the back of serious athletes – and the Globe – but not the Herald.

Ouch.

Two-Daily Town Mortal Lock™

If the Patriots win tonight’s Super Bowl, tomorrow’s Globe will be awash in full-page congratulatory ads.

Tomorrow’s Herald will not.

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Boston Herald Shrinks Re: Stealth Marketing Disclose

February 3, 2017

As the hardreading staff has noted previously, the Boston Herald has never been overfastidious about distinctions between marketing and news. But the stealthy local tabloid has just gotten one level sneakier.

Today’s edition features this page topped by “sponsored content” touting special Massachusetts Lottery scratch tickets for the Patriots and other New England sports teams. (Inexplicable Little Green Number sold separately.)

 

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Even closer up, the disclosure is pretty minimal.

 

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That’s clearly a step down from the Herald’s previous perfunctory labeling.

 

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Of course, native advertising works best when it labels itself least. The more you think it’s editorial content, the better for the marketer.

And the better for the sneaky local tabloid too.

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Boston Globe Falls For Trumped Up Aussie Charge

February 3, 2017

From our Just Not the Facts desk

The Morrissey Boulevardiers have nabbed our uncoveted Boo Daily Town award for this item in today’s Capital section.

 

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As numerous fact checkers have pointed out, they’re not “illegal immigrants,” they’re refugees. Here’s Washington Post Fact Checker, Michelle Ye Hee Lee.

Trump is referring to the estimated 1,250 (not “thousands”) refugees and asylum seekers that the United States, under President Barack Obama, agreed to accept from an Australian detention center. Refugees and asylum seekers who arrive illegally by boat in Australia are called “illegal maritime arrivals.” They can apply for two types of temporary visas, and some may qualify to apply for permanent residency.

 

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, Politifact rated Trump’s tweet Half-True. But we sorta expect more than half truths from the Globe, no?

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Boston Globe’s ‘Anything Can Happen (Satur)Day’

January 22, 2017

From our As the Globe Turns desk

When Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory recently trumpeted the coming reinvention of the local broadsheet (Hey! We can use John Henry’s garage!), the hardreading staff never imagined it would involve flip-flopping between formats for the paper’s Saturday edition.

A little over a year ago, the Globe introduced a new look on Saturdays, which we immediately labeled WSJr.

The Boston Globe unveiled a new look this morning, one that appears very much like a knockoff of the Weekend Wall Street Journal. (Sorry, no WSJ e-paper, so you’ll have to spring for one yourself, or – god forbid – take our word for it.) [Update: The Journal actually does have an e-paper now, praise God.]

Brave New Globe, Page One:

 

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And we noted this editor’s note from McGrory.

 

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So Metro, Nation, World, Business, and Opinion were all smushed together in the A section, while the new Good Life section was pure Wall Street Journalism.

But . . .

Yesterday, for reasons that went unexplained, the Globe reverted to its former format, with this Page One.

 

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And say hello to the old stand-alone Metro section.

 

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So, to recap:

The Boston Globe has a (relatively) new Saturday format.

Except when it doesn’t.

Okay then.

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Globe, Herald Are Tied in Slapping NHL ‘Loser Point’

January 15, 2017

It’s always pleasant when the scribes align at the two Boston dailies, and today is one of those instances. The point of agreement? The NHL system of awarding two points to the winner of an overtime game and one to the loser.

The loser point.

The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont and the Boston Herald’s Stephen Harris crosscheck the league’s overtime policy as a leading cause of the stunning amount of mediocre hockey currently on display in NHL games. Under the headline “NHL’s ‘loser point’ never a winning idea,” Dupont writes:

Its existence routinely makes the game action worse, detracts from the entertainment factor, part of a much broader struggle in a sport where the E-factor has taken humongous hits in recent years with the near-eradication of fighting and the lack of goal scoring.

The problem is, coaches coach to the loser point, something not seen in any other sport. And for good reason. It’s awful.

 

Harris doesn’t like the loser point any better. But he notes the possibility of adopting the European soccer and hockey approach.

•    In games decided in regulation, the winner receives three points, the loser gets zero.

•    A team that wins in overtime of any sort — sudden-death or shootout — earns two points.

•    The team that loses in extra time gets one point.

Just imagine the value of wins in regulation — and the motivation that would provide for players to give their all, and not simply hang on until OT.

 

Maybe . . . depending on the standings, yeah?

But Dupont’s not buying it: “One common remedy offered to prevent such third-period “failure to engage” would be to award 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss. Count me out, if only on the basis of muddling through the already confusing standings.”

How about this: Two points for an overtime win, no points for an overtime loss. You know – old school. Just a thought.

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NBC Boston Spans the Globe (But Not the Herald) II

January 8, 2017

The new TV kid in town has once again wrapped itself around the Boston Globe while stealing the Boston Herald’s lunch money.

This week’s wrapper is similar to the one that ran last Sunday, with the two skinny panels being slightly different.

 

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The two full pages, however, are the same.

 

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Meanwhile, NBC Boston’s heralding continues to be largely Heraldless (the lone exception, as far as we could tell, was a one-third page ad last Tuesday). You would think Channel Everywhere would at least throw an ad into the Sunday Sports section, maybe in the football pages.

But no. Instead, there’s this:

 

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That’s brilliant – can’t you just see that meeting?

“Chester- we need a half-page house ad for B17!”

“How about this one, Boss – our football fans love a good party photo.”

Yeesh.

No wonder the dotty local tabloid can’t get any ad love.

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NBC Boston Spans the Globe (But Not the Herald)

January 2, 2017

As the hardwatching staff has noted, the new NBC Boston (not to be confused with the old NBC Boston owned by arch nemesis Ed Ansin) has an uphill climb to establish itself in the local market.

For starters, there are the 20 – count ’em, 20 – different dial positions the new NBC Boston occupies, as this recent Boston Globe ad enumerated.

 

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That’s not broadcasting. That’s Sudoku.

Not to mention, as we previously mentioned:

First off, check out the over-the-air options available to what used to be called “cable decliners”: 8.1, 60.2, 60.5.

Seriously?

Those are the same people who have a VCR flashing 12:00 . . . 12:00 . . . 12:00 . . .

You think they can find Channel 60.5?

 

Regardless, yesterday was the official launch of NBC Boston, which the new enterprise marked by purchasing the Globe’s home delivery plastic bag, as well as wrapping the paper with an ad that included two skinny panels:

 

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And two full pages:

 

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Today NBC Boston got a sort of gift with purchase from the Globe: This front-page Don Aucoin piece.

As NBC preens, WHDH regroups

The muscle-flexing — or perhaps I should say feather-preening, since we’re talking about the Peacock Network — began early Sunday morning as NBC Boston made its debut. And it never really let up.

NBC’s mission: to convince the audience its programs are so popular that viewers will not only embrace its decision not to renew its affiliate agreement with WHDH-TV (Channel 7) but will also follow NBC to its new spot, with its own identity in the Boston TV market.

 

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, Aucoin’s analysis is no puff piece, as he addresses the challenges facing both NBC Boston and NBC’s ex, WHDH. He also details NBC Boston’s marketing flurry yesterday, from “saturating its airwaves with pointed reminders” of the network’s switch to “a daylong stream of ads spotlighting NBC stars.”

Interestingly, the piece does not mention the major ad bucks that went to the Globe itself.

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, meanwhile, NBC Boston has . . . been dark, running not a single ad to guide Herald readers through the numbers salad the new station is serving up.

Hey, NBCniks: Herald readers watch TV too, you know.

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