July 18, 2016
As the hardreading staff has noted, ever since Roger Berkowitz hired New York ad agency DeVito/Verdi, Legal Sea Food’s advertising has largely been in bad taste – a little bit flashy, a little bit trashy. (Our kissin’ cousins at Campaign Outsider have noted the same.)
Back in March DeVito came up with the breakthrough concept of having Berkowitz run for president, employing the theme Feel the Berk. (Sure, lots of ads have featured fake political campaigns, but none of them involved Berkowitz.)
Representative samples:
Today came the latest installment, which ran in both Boston dailies.
Interestingly, the Herald ad (above) is labeled “Advertisement” – four times – while the Globe version is unlabeled. That says something about either the Herald editors or the paper’s readers. Or, possibly, both.
Regardless, one more piece of carp from the local fish house chain.
4 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: #feeltheberk, #feelthejerk, $tately local broadsheet, Boston Globe, Boston Globe $ynergy, Boston Herald, Campaign Outsider, DeVito/Verdi, Legal Sea Foods, piece of carp, Roger Berkowitz, thirsty local tabloid | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 13, 2016
As the hardreading staff recently noted, the Boston Globe has been less than forthcoming in its coverage of the quest for giving landmark status to the renowned Citgo sign.
That’s because the Globe has not disclosed that the paper has profited nicely from Citgo’s campaign to save the Kenmore Square icon.
(Boston University – where the hardreading staff moonlights as a mass communication professor – is looking to sell the Commonwealth Avenue building the Citgo sign sits atop.)
To recap the $tately local broadsheet’s connection:
Citgo has spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past few months running ads such as these in the Globe.
But no Globe stories – including today’s report that “[a] city board voted to launch the process of making the iconic electric sign an official city landmark” – have mentioned the paper’s financial profit from Citgo’s ad campaign.
As we have said before:
Rough estimate: At least eight quarter-page ads costing maybe $20,000.
So you say – $20,000? That’s lunch money at the Boston Globe.
True. But it’s lunch money the Globe should mention whenever it covers the Citgo sign rumpus.
And so we say again.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: #CITGOsign, $tately local broadsheet, 660 Beacon Street, Barnes & Noble at BU, Bertucci's, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston Sign, Boston University, Boston's Sign, BU, Change.org, Citgo sign, Cities Service Co., Cornwall's Pub, Gary Nicksa, Kenmore Square, Maria Stephanos, Newmark | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 8, 2016
A smashmouth piece in the Huffington Post this week about U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her pattern of political prosecutions has drawn attention in both local dailies, but, as usual, from different angles.
Yesterday’s Boston Globe featured a Joan Vennochi column with this lede:
POLITICAL CORRUPTION cases generate big headlines — and big push back.
Just ask US Attorney Carmen Ortiz. She made a big splash when she indicted two aides to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on charges they forced organizers of a music festival to hire union workers. But now, with Walsh presumed to be her ultimate prize, a posse of critics is throwing cold water on the prosecution.
Vennochi proceeded to cite criticism of Ortiz by former AG Martha Coakley, attorney Harvey Silverglate, and retired federal judge Nancy Gertner – all of whom were quoted in the HuffPost takedown.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, though, the focus was more on the question of Marty Walsh’s possible involvement in the Ortiz hit, given that she has already indicted two Walsh administration officials on charges of extortion.
Yesterday’s front page (Inexplicable Little Green Number sold separately):
The story inside has Walsh denying he’s “waging a PR counteroffensive” against Ortiz, but points out that “Walsh’s chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh, formerly served as chief of staff to Huffington Post Editor Arianna Huffington and as general manager of Huffington Post Live before joining the mayor’s inner circle.”
Today there’s no follow-up in the Globe, but the Herald has this piece by Dan Atkinson.
Call for answers on Huffington Post piece
PAC wants ‘public scrutiny’ re Walsh role
A national conservative group wants to see any communications between City Hall and the authors of a Huffington Post piece blasting U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, saying that if Mayor Martin J. Walsh or his staff engaged in a political hit job, they should be “held up to public scrutiny.”
A Herald front-page story yesterday quoted Walsh saying he and his aides had no involvement in the article, titled “This Federal Prosecutor Is Building A Career Indicting The Good Guys.” But the mayor admitted that he and his chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh — who used to work at The Huffington Post — knew the piece was in the works.
“Both the timeline and the mayor’s answer raised red flags for us,” said Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for America Rising PAC, which filed a public records request with the city for any emails and texts between the Walsh administration and The Huffington Post.
Just what Walsh needs right now, eh? One more group emauling him.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Amelia Chase, America Rising PAC, Arianna Huffington, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Carmen Ortiz, Dan Atkinson, Daniel A. Koh, Daniel Marans, Harvey Silverglate, Huffington Post, HuffPost, Joan Vennochi, Ken Brissette, Martha Coakley, Marty Walsh, Nancy Gertner, Ryan Grim, Timothy Sullivan, U.s. Attorney | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 6, 2016
Very good (samaritan) story in today’s local dailies.
Start with the Boston Herald piece by Jordan Graham and O’Ryan Johnson.
Cops hail cabbie after turning in nearly $200G
Bundles of bills found in bag
A Boston cabbie is being praised as a good Samaritan after finding and returning a passenger’s inheritance — nearly $200,000 in cold hard cash — accidentally left in the back of his taxi.
“Fifty percent of people say, ‘Yeah, you should have done that.’ The other 50 percent say, ‘You should have took it,’ but I’m not a crook,” said Raymond MacCausland, who found the green backpack filled with approximately $187,000 in cash in his cab on Saturday. “I always return things.”
Even the really big ones, apparently.
As for the absent-minded passenger, who told MacCausland he was homeless and moving into a motel, he wasn’t talking – at least to the Herald.
Reached by phone after the money was returned, the passenger declined to comment.
“I’m all set, I’m all set,” he said.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, however, it was a slightly different story in Nestor Ramos’s hands.
[W]hile MacCausland was driving around Back Bay with a small fortune in a tattered backpack, the man to whom the money belonged wasn’t worried.
“I knew he’d find me,” the man said. “I didn’t panic at all.”
Beyond that, Ramos also generated this gem:
Standing outside his hotel on Tuesday, the heir said he was going to take a year to recover from many months of homelessness and decades of hard living. He checked into a hotel and was still getting used to not having to hide his meager things from overnight thieves.
After that, he wasn’t sure: He’d been trying to find an apartment, but his credit is disastrous. He says he has more inheritance money coming in the years ahead, but was unsure of the terms.
Eventually, he said, “I’m going to do what I always said I’m going to do: Die in Prague.”
Note to Mr. Butterfingers: If you need a taxicab in Prague, check here.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Jordan Graham, Nestor Ramos, O'Ryan Johnson, Pine Street Inn, Prague, Raymond MacCausland | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 5, 2016
From our bottomless Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
As the hardreading staff has noted, when General Electric decided to move its corporate headquarters to Boston last April, GE celebrated its migration with this full-page ad in the Boston Globe.
But, as we also noted, GE ignored the Boston Herald.
The [ad’s] small type: “GE and Boston are the perfect combination to usher in a new digital industrial revolution. We’re proud to call the city that never stops making history our new home.”
But, apparently, not proud enough to run its ad in the Boston Herald.
Hey, GEniks: You’re moving to a two-daily town. Show the thirsty local tabloid some love, eh?
Since then GE – totally ignoring us – has run a series of full-page ads in the Globe but not the Herald, such as this one in May:
And, in yesterday’s Globe, yet another full-page suck-up.
We’ll say it again:
Hey, GEniks: You’re moving to a two-daily town. Show the thirsty local tabloid some love, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston headquarters, Boston Herald, Boston Public Schools, GE, GE Brilliant Career Labs, General Electric, Local Dailies DisADvantage, tax breaks, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 1, 2016
From our Late to the Rescue Party desk
The $tately local broadsheet really needs to get better at full disclosure.
Wednesday’s Boston Globe featured this piece about the impending sale of the Kenmore Square building that the fabled Citgo sign sits upon.
Push to protect the Citgo sign
Commission to consider bid for landmark status
Despite the Citgo sign’s storied spot on the Boston skyline, there are no city protections to keep it there.
Now, there’s a growing push to change that.
The Boston Landmarks Commission next month will take up a measure that could grant official landmark status to the sign above Kenmore Square. And an online petition supporting that plan received nearly 1,100 signatures in its first four days.
Back story: As the hardreading staff has dutifully noted, Boston University plans to sell 660 Beacon Street and several other adjoining buildings, but has has not made keeping the Citgo sign a condition of the sale. So, as the Globe piece reported, the Boston Preservation Alliance has launched a Change.org campaign to save the landmark sign.
But what the Globe piece did not report is that Citgo has run a series of Globe ads extolling the virtues of its sign.
Representative samples:
Rough estimate: At least eight quarter-page ads costing maybe $20,000.
So you say – $20,000? That’s lunch money at the Boston Globe.
True. But it’s lunch money the Globe should mention whenever it covers the Citgo sign rumpus.
Or is that just us.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: #CITGOsign, $tately local broadsheet, 660 Beacon Street, Barnes & Noble at BU, Bertucci's, Boston Globe, Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston Sign, Boston University, Boston's Sign, BU, Change.org, Citgo sign, Cities Service Co., Cornwall's Pub, Gary Nicksa, Kenmore Square, Maria Stephanos, Newmark | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 30, 2016
The hardreading staff is a longtime devotee of Boston Globe comic strips such as Dan Piraro’s Bizarro, Bill Griffith’s Zippy the Pinhead, and Darby Conley’s Get Fuzzy, and we’ve long had a morning routine of reading the Globe Sports section, then turning to the back of the Metro section to read the funny pages.
Until yesterday.
When suddenly – magically! – the comics pages appeared at the back of the Sports section. (D6 and D7 for those of you keeping score at home.)
No advance warning.
No Editor’s note.
No nothing.
And then today – poof! – the comics pages are back at the rear of Metro.
Hey, Globeniks: Some respek, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Griffith, Bizarro, Boston Globe, comics pages, Dan Piraro, Darby Conley, Get Fuzzy, Globeniks, Zippy, Zippy the Pinhead | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 29, 2016
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
Once again, the thirsty local tabloid gets no love from the full-page-ad set.
Today’s Boston Globe features this costly advertisement from the Massachusetts chapter of AARP.
But nothing in the Boston Herald.
Hey, AARPniks: Old people read the Herald too! (We should know – we’re one of them.)
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: AARP, AARP of Massachusetts, AARPniks, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Elizabeth Warren, Local Dailies DisADvantage, retirement savings loophole, Steven Lynch, thirsty local tabloid, U.S. Department of Labor | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 28, 2016
The hardreading staff generally admires media criticism from the peripatetic Jack Shafer, but his latest Politico piece is a little low-hanging-fruitish.
Uh-Oh. Here Come the Brexperts.
Reporters: Don’t know much about Brexit? Don’t let that stop you.
Who could have predicted that the press harbored so many experts on the repercussions of Brexit? Following Thursday’s vote by the British electorate to leave the European Union, these whizzes crowded the airwaves, clogged the newspapers and swamped their websites with assessments of the breakup’s meaning.
Obviously, some outlets that specialize in finance and cover the Eurozone—like the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC—have a handle on the subject; they’d been covering it long before Thursday. But as you stray from these specialists for the generalists, whose job it is to report on whatever Topic A might be that day (weather, politics, infectious disease, baseball), the more the Brexit coverage begins to resemble one long amateur hour.
Yeah, except most of journalism is amateur hour: generalists interviewing specialists to cobble together something that sounds vaguely reasonable. And, very often, reasonably vague.
Regardless, here’s Shafer’s Boston Globe nuts-to-you graf:
At the Boston Globe, for example, reporter James Pindell dug deeply into his bag of journalistic clichés last week to deduced that the Brexit vote was “about the economy, stupid” and that if Brexit caused a recession it would “dramatically change the conversation of the presidential race.” No kidding! Michael A. Cohen, a regular on the Globe op-ed page, concluded that it was not David Cameron’s fault Brexit passed, nor was it Jeremy Corbyn’s, nor could it be blamed on the EU elites who pushed immigration. It was “actual voters.” Another astonishing finding.
C’mon, Jack – you can do better than to beat up on what’s essentially beat reporting (in every sense of that phrase). Besides, you’re always a lot more interesting when you go after the high-hanging fruit.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Brexit, CNBC, David Cameron, EU, European Union, Financial Times, Jack Shafer, James Pindell, Jeremy Corbyn, low-hanging-fruitish, Michael A. Cohen, Politico, Wall Street Journal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 26, 2016
As the hardreading staff has noted, yesterday’s Boston Globe ran this Associated Press obituary of the great Vietnam War chronicler Michael Herr.
As we also noted, Dispatches is not a novel – it’s a splendid example of the literary non-fiction/New Journalism of the ’60s and ’70s. The AP has apparently recognized that, because here’s their obit as picked up by today’s Boston Herald.
Oddest thing, though: The Herald’s online version has it both ways.
“Non-fiction novel,” eh? That’s new.
Meanwhile, the Globe still hasn’t amended its online version of the obit. A novel approach to corrections, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: AP, Apocalypse Now, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dispatches, Emmett Rensin, Full Metal Jacket, Hillel Italie, Michael Herr, Vietnam War, Vox, Walter Winchell | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 