Hey, Boston Globe: ‘Dispatches’ Is NOT a Novel

June 25, 2016

Michael Herr, widely regarded as the premier chronicler of the Vietnam War, died on Thursday at the age of 76.

Today’s Boston Globe includes this Associated Press obituary. Lede:

 

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Noooo . . . not a novel, but “the seminal work of new journalism about the Vietnam War,” as Emmett Rensin wrote in Vox. It took Herr ten years to produce Dispatches, after suffering a nervous breakdown upon his return from Vietnam and not writing anything for five years.

Rensin also noted this quote by Hunter S. Thompson: “We have all spent 10 years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived . . . but Michael Herr’s Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade.”

The end of the AP obit notes that “[Herr’s] other books included ‘Walter Winchell,’ a 1990 novel about the powerful and irascible gossip columnist.” Actually, that is a novel, so the AP went one-for-two on the book front.

No correction attached to the Globe pickup, though. So they’re oh-for-one.


Hark! The Herald! (OneOrlando Fund Edition)

June 16, 2016

From our Walt Whitman desk

As the hardreading staff has chronicled in excruciating detail, the Boston Herald is a past master at promoting itself in its news pages.

But now comes the selfie local tabloid promoting itself in this half-page ad for the OneOrlando Fund.

 

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So you might reasonably be thinking:

1) This is a fund set up by the Boston Herald

2) The multiphobic Herald (immigrants, Muslims, GLBT, and etc.) has finally seen the light.

Except . . .

The OneOrlando Fund has nothing to do with the Herald. From its website:

 

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We’ll give the Herald the benefit of the doubt and assume this is just the milk of human kindness. But given the sketchy local tabloid’s track record, well, draw your own conclusions.


Boston (Globe), We Have a Houston Problem

June 9, 2016

There’s a gossip gap regarding the late lamented Whitney Houston in today’s Boston dailies.

Start with this Boston Globe Names item about Houston’s parasitic partner Bobby Brown, who’s currently flacking a new book.

Brown: ‘I’ve had some crazy situations’

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Bobby Brown will say what he wants, weird as it may be. That’s his prerogative.

In an interview to promote his new memoir, “Every Little Step,” the Roxbury native and cofounder of the ’80s boy band New Edition told Robin Roberts on “20/20” Tuesday that he had sex with a ghost.

“I bought this mansion in Georgia. This was a really, really spooky place,” he said. “But yes, one time I woke up and, yeah, a ghost. . . . I wasn’t high.”

 

Uh-huh. Then there’s some other stuff in the item that’s entirely unremarkable, as Brown himself tends to be.

But it was a whole nother story from the Boston Herald’s Inside Track Gal, Gayle Fee.

Bobby book blames Whitney’s death 
on lack of acceptance for BFF lovers

Bobby Brown, the Roxbury R&B star who was married to the late Whitney Houston for 14 years, reveals that the mega-pop star had a lesbian love affair with her best Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 1.17.33 PMfriend and longtime assistant Robyn Crawford, adding that if the two were still together, Houston might never have died.

“I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today,” Brown told Us Weekly. “She didn’t have close friends with her anymore.”

 

With grave robbers like Bobby Brown around, though, she’ll never really be gone.


Boston Globe’s Capital Section Lacks, Well, Capital

June 4, 2016

Back in 2014 when the Boston Globe introduced its new weekly Capital section, it was a fat 12 pages with lots of advertising, as the hardreading staff noted at the time.

By the next year, however, Capital had started to dwindle, as we also noted.

Boston Globe’s Capital Withdrawal

Well the hardreading staff was leafing through the Boston Globe this morning and here’s what we found on Metro Page One:

screen-shot-2015-02-27-at-12-43-08-pm

 

Sure enough, the former stand-alone section occupied all of four Metro pages that featured – motheragawd! – exactly zero ads.

 

And now it’s come to this . . . one lonely page in yesterday’s edition of the Globe.

 

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The only Capitalization in sight was Steward Health Care System’s promotion of James Pindell’s Ground Game, but even that lacked its usual full-page companion ad.

Looks like Capital might be the Globe’s latest strand of spaghetti that didn’t stick to the wall.


Boston Globe’s NFL/CTE Last Graf Is Herald Headline

June 3, 2016

From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk

The local dailies have duly noted this week’s Boston University School of Medicine shindig to kick off a seven-year, $16 million study called DIAGNOSE CTE, which will examine the relationship of head injuries to the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

That, of course, is a subject the National Football League has a $12 billion a year interest in.

Interestingly, that interest got very different play in yesterday’s local papers.

Kay Lazar’s Boston Globe Metro Page One piece:

Study to test brain damage in living

Why do some athletes who suffer repeated head injuries develop a devastating brain disease, while others seem immune? And can this degenerative disease be treated or even prevented?

A team of scientists from across the country gathered Wednesday at Boston University School of Medicine to launch a pioneering study aimed at detecting chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a disease that silently destroys the minds of athletes after years of repetitive blows to the head. But this time, unlike so much of the research preceding it, the studies will be conducted in people who are alive.

 

The NFL connection was relegated to the story’s final graf.

[A] congressional committee last week issued a scathing report saying it found evidence top NFL officials improperly tried to influence the selection of scientists for government-funded research on CTE. That interference, the report found, concerned the grant eventually awarded to the team led by BU’s [Robert] Stern.

 

But the National Finagling League’s interference was headline material in Lindsay Kalter’s Boston Herald report.

Doc: we won’t fumble

Despite NFL cries, CTE project rolls on

Boston University neuroscientist Dr. Robert Stern said his groundbreaking study on head trauma, which was Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 12.28.45 AMofficially launched yesterday, will not be sullied by the long-brewing controversy over the NFL’s alleged attempts to strip him of his funding.

“I’m just so unbelievably excited to get this science moving right now,” Stern told the Herald. “This is the time to do this science.”

He added, “We’re now going to move forward.”

 

As will the Boston dailies, each on its own track.


Memo to BG’s Mark Feeney: You Forgot Elvis Costello

June 1, 2016

The hardreading staff yields to no man in our admiration and respect for Boston Globe critic Mark Feeney. (Full disclosure: Feeney was one of our editors back in the Jurassic Era when we wrote for the Globe’s Focus section.)

Yesterday’s Globe featured Feeney’s fine review of Radio Contact: Tuning in to Politics, Technology, & Culture at the Harvard University Science Center.

They told Marconi wireless was a phony

Harvard exhibit on early radios and broadcasts proves listening is imagining

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Is there a stranger term than “terrestrial radio”? Oh sure, it distinguishes traditional radio from the satellite kind. But radio, with its plucking of sound from the ether, is the least terrestrial of media. For that same reason, it’s the most magical. That sense of magic is there in the most common early nickname for radio, “the wireless.” No wires is even better than no strings. We can hear an echo in today’s “wireless technology.”

“They told Marconi/ Wireless was a phony.” Ira Gershwin, “They All Laughed”

The magic begins with technology and extends far beyond it — to inside the listener’s head. Radio has a unique capacity to evoke. Seeing is believing, no question. But listening is something better. Listening is imagining.

“I heard the voice of America/ Callin’ on my wavelength/ Tellin’ me to tune in on my radio.” Van Morrison, “Wavelength”

Much of the medium’s magic comes through in “Radio Contact: Tuning in to Politics, Technology, & Culture.”

 

Feeney peppered his review with other radio-related quotes from a variety of songwriters.

“I got the AM/ (Radio On!)/ Got the car, got the AM/ (Radio On!)/ Got the AM sound, got the/ (Radio On!)/ Got the rockin’ modern neon sound/ (Radio On!)/ I got the car from Massachusetts, got the/ (Radio On!) /I got the power of Massachusetts when it’s late at night/(Radio On!) /I got the modern sounds of modern Massachusetts.” Jonathan Richman, “Roadrunner”

 

“We’re having a party/ Dancing to the music/ Played by the DJ/ On the radio.” Sam Cooke, “Having a Party”

 

 “Despite all the computation/ You could dance to a rock ’n’ roll station/And it was all right.” Lou Reed, “Rock’n’Roll”

 

“The radio and the telephone and the movies that we know/ May just be passing fancies and in time may go.” Ira Gershwin, “Love Is Here to Stay”

 

Excellent!

Just one problem: No Elvis Costello, who wrote the ultimate radio anthem.

 

 

Roll your own lyrics:

I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations
Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke ’cause it’s old
They’re saying things that I can hardly believe
They really think we’re getting out of control

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice ’cause they think that it’s treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they’d never seen me

Some of my friends sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up, they don’t wanna hear about it
It’s only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin’ to anaesthetise the way that you feel

Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio

 

All due respect, Mark.


Boston Herald Emauls Globe on Brissette Extort Story

May 29, 2016

From our No Credit Where Credit’s Due desk

For the second straight day the Boston Herald has stiffed the Boston Globe in reporting about the Kenneth Brissette shakedown story.

Let’s start at the beginning, with yesterday’s Page One story in the Globe.

E-mails link Walsh aide to union deal

Stagehands passed festival proposal through Sullivan

A contract requiring the Boston Calling music festival to hire union stagehands in 2014 was submitted for review to a close aide to Mayor Martin J. Walsh during a time when federal prosecutors allege city officials illegally forced the concert organizers to hire unneeded union workers, according to city e-mails released Friday.

The stagehands passed the contract proposal to Boston Calling, a private entity, through Walsh aide Tim Sullivan, according to the e-mails, which were acquired by the Globe through a public records request. In an Aug. 20, 2014 e-mail, the union’s business manager lays out the terms of the agreement and thanks the administration for its assistance.

 

But here’s how yesterday’s Herald handled the story.

INCHES CLOSER TO MARTY

Communications reveal meetings between mayor’s advisers, Boston Calling, BrissetteScreen Shot 2016-05-29 at 1.18.27 PM

A top adviser and close confidante of Mayor Martin J. Walsh was looped into discussions about labor unions with Boston Calling organizers and tourism chief Kenneth Brissette at the same time federal prosecutors say Brissette was strong-arming festival officials to hire union workers, according to newly released emails.

 

“Newly released emails,” eh? Like out of the goodness of Walsh’s heart?

Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld also refers to them as “the newly released emails.” Just dropped out of the sky.

And so we get to today’s edition of the Herald, which features this follow-up referring to – wait for it – “newly released emails.”

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, the Herald got its own set of City Hall emails released the other day, in this case over the Top Chef rumpus, as yesterday’s edition reported.

A livid TV production staffer warned a city tourism official that Boston was at risk of being blacklisted over heavy-handed union tactics, according to newly released emails.

The scores of emails, obtained by the Herald in a public records request, show the inner workings of the Boston Office of Tourism, Sports and Entertainment that was headed by Kenneth Brissette.

 

The Globe, as far as we can tell (because the Globe’s search engine is worse than useless), did not pick up on that story. Let’s hope if the lately local broadsheet does, it’ll show better manners than the dodgy local tabloid.


Citgo Throws a Few Pennies at the Boston Herald

May 15, 2016

As the hardreading staff has noted on numerous occasions, Citgo has lately been running quarter-page ads in the Boston Globe celebrating its Kenmore Square sign, whose future is uncertain now that Boston University is looking to sell the buildings beneath it.

Representative sample:

 

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We’ve asked Citgo’s public affairs manager Fernando Garay why the company doesn’t run ads in the Boston Herald, but he’s been a private affairs manager to us, not deigning to respond to multiple inquiries.

However . . .

Splendid reader Sam Doran has sent us this:

The print Herald may be thirsty for Citgo Sign ads, but CyberHerald’s got them. I just noticed a banner at the top of the mobile site. Two screenshots are attached. Tapping the banner led to bostoncitgosign.com (second screenshot).

 

Said screenshots:

 

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Of course, it costs pennies on the (print) dollar for Boston Herald digital ads, but no doubt the thirsty local tabloid is thankful for whatever Citgo sends its way.

Still, Citgo’s sign to the Herald (and Two-Daily Town) remains . . . the middle finger.


Big Power Outage at Boston Herald

May 13, 2016

From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk

Another day, another dolor for the thirsty local tabloid, which once again gets the air – not the ad – in a local public policy tussle.

This time it’s the Environmental League of Massachusetts and the Conservation Law Foundation that have teamed up to run an ad in today’s Boston Globe (but not the Herald) addressing Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo about energy policy in the Bay State.

 

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Memo to George Bachrach and Brad Campbell:

What, it would have killed you to run a half-page ad in the Herald?

Or did you just run out of gas?


Hark! The Herald! (Cohen After WashPost Edition)

May 11, 2016

From our Walt Whitman desk

Call it the fisty local tabloid, ’cause the punches are flyin’ today.

It all started with this Callum Borchers piece in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Pundits achieve cable-news stardom after converting into Donald Trump supporters

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Last summer, shortly after Donald Trump launched his angry missile of a campaign with that memorable remark about Mexicans and rapists, Kayleigh McEnany sounded like pretty much every other talking head on cable news.

“I think he said something very unartful, very inappropriate,” she told Don Lemon during a June 29 segment on “CNN Tonight.”

“I’m here to tell you, he’s not going to be anywhere near the top five,” McEnany added. “He’s not a serious contender within the Republican Party. And I think he made that pretty clear when the most important thing he said in his speech was, ‘I am rich, I am rich,’ repeatedly.”

Today, McEnany sounds very different — both from her earlier self and from better-known conservative commentators such as Karl Rove and S.E. Cupp, who remain highly critical of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. McEnany is now a staunch Trump supporter, a turnaround that has helped make the newly minted Harvard Law School graduate a rising star on CNN . . .

 

McEnany, Borchers writes, “is one of a small handful of commentators — including Jeffrey Lord, Scottie Nell Hughes, Adriana Cohen and Carl Higbie — who have made defending the real estate mogul their niche and in the process made themselves hot commodities.”

And hot under the collar, in Cohen’s case. The Boston Herald columnist fired back at Borchers in today’s edition.

D.C. hit job ignores facts

Post piece demeans female pundits who back Trump

If you want to see what the war on women looks like, you need look no further than The Washington Post.Screen Shot 2016-05-11 at 1.39.38 PM

To be more specific, the war on conservative women.

Because I have dared to write supportive opinion columns on Donald Trump, I was featured along with two other female commentators in a Post story that stated that I have “achieved cable-news stardom after converting” into a Donald Trump supporter, that I, along with the others, “have made defending the real estate mogul their niche and in the process made themselves hot commodities.”

 

Cohen says despite Borchers’ claim that she was an “occasional guest” on CNN, Fox News Channel, and Fox Business Network “before getting behind Trump,” she actually appeared on national TV and radio shows “at least 100 times over the past few years, long before writing columns backing Trump and his positions this February.”

Cohen does not, however, address this part of Borchers’ piece:

On March 25, during a live segment on CNN, [Cohen] brought up a National Enquirer story that alleged multiple extramarital affairs by Cruz — unsubstantiated rumors that the mainstream media had mostly ignored until then. As anchor Kate Bolduan shook her head, Cohen went a step further, asserting on live TV that fellow guest Amanda Carpenter, Cruz’s former communications director, had been identified as one of five mistresses.

 

Ouch.

One last point: As Cohen points out, some of the comments attached to Borchers’ piece are brutally misogynistic. But during this election season, that’s par for the course. Trump supporters or no.