From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
Pity the poor Boston Herald, passed over once again by the full-page-ad set.
From today’s Boston Globe, page 5:
Sad news for the family and friends of Leon A. Gorman, who died last week.
And non-business as usual for the thirsty local tabloid.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, DisAdvantage, L.L. Bean, Leon A. Gorman, Local Dailies DisADvantage, thirsty local tabloid | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
Poor Jane Rosenberg, the courtroom artist whose drawing of Tom Brady during a Deflategate hearing, well, blew up last month. Rosenberg got her mulligan yesterday, a matter of great interest here in Bradyville.
The Boston Globe’s Namesniks gave her new sketch a thumb’s up.
Artist has second shot at sketching Tom Brady
Everyone likes a good comeback story. On Monday, courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg got hers.
Rosenberg made national news Aug. 12 after her less-than-flattering sketches of Tom Brady from his Deflategate hearing went viral. She told the Globe that day, of her courtroom work, “I don’t tend to flatter people and make them look beautiful.” Later she said she received hundreds of e-mails from fans who were unhappy with the depiction of their quarterback. But on Monday, after Brady left the courtroom, Rosenberg unveiled her new look for the Patriots star. Looks more like the guy we know, right?
Actually, no, according to crosstown rival Boston Herald.
Artist’s 2nd Brady sketch draws different critiques
Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg got another crack at drawing Tom Brady following a disastrous first attempt that depicted the Patriots quarterback as ghoulish and uncomely, opening her up to ridicule and scorn from Patriots nation.
Unfortunately, her second sketch bears a striking resemblance to the wrong All-Pro quarterback.
Trying to tone down the rigid features she gave Brady’s lower face in the first sketch, Rosenberg ended up extending and stretching Brady’s forehead, creating a figure that more closely resembles his rival, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
Ouch.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Deflategate, Jane Rosenberg, Names, Namesniks, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Tom Brady sketch | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
First in what we expect will be an endless series
The chronically overcaffeinated Boston Herald jumped on the 2016 presidential campaign ad bandwagon yesterday with this Herald Special Report by Erin Smith and Jack Encarnacao.
Campaign ads will have Mass. appeal
$18M in local spots already booked for 2016
Presidential candidates and super PACs have already booked more than $18 million worth of ad time on local television through next year — just the start of a more than $300 million presidential bonanza for area TV stations.
With ad buys variously targeting women, men and both older and younger demographics, the campaigns and PACs could make 2016 the most moneyed campaign season ever. But it could also be the last big presidential election of the TV age, before the Internet starts cutting deeply into broadcast ad revenues.
First of all, 2016 will not be the last big presidential election of the TV age. Internet ads can mobilize, but nothing amplifies the way television spots do.
Second of all, this part of the Herald piece is pure fantasy:
“There’s so much money that’s going to be spent on television advertising that they will run out of spots,” said Kip Cassino of Borrell Associates, a media research company. “There is going to be more political spending — from last Fourth of July until Election Day 2016 — then [sic] has ever been spent in the history of the nation. It’s going to be more than $16 billion.”
$16 billion? Seriously?
Let’s consult a more sober-minded source, shall we?
From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal piece by Patrick O’Connor:
Kantar Media, which tracks TV advertising, predicts overall spending for the 2016 elections will be about $4.4 billion, up roughly 16% from the $3.8 billion candidates and outside groups laid out for cable and broadcast ads in 2012. “TV remains the best way to reach passive voters who are not necessarily looking for information,” said Elizabeth Wilner, who oversees Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Interestingly, this WSJ graphic directly contradicts the Herald claims by Borrell Associates’ Kip Cassino.
Notice the source of the graphic?
Borrell Associates!
Go figure.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Borrell Associates, Boston Herald, Boston Heraldsteria!, Elizabeth Wilner, Erin Smith, Jack Encarnacao, Kantar Campaign Media Analysis Group, Kantar Media, Kip Cassino, Patrick O'Connor, Wall Street Journal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
As you splendid readers know, the headscratching staff has been asking for the past several days, Who Ran This Anti-Iran Ad in Friday’s Boston Herald?
We contacted WRKO radio host Jeff Kuhner, State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, and Charles Jacobs’s Americans for Peace and Tolerance to find out, but none of them got back to us.
So we moseyed down to the State House yesterday around noon to investigate the Potemkinish Ad Hoc Committee Against Funding of Iranian Terror.
Almost immediately we encountered Rep. O’Connell, who told us she didn’t know who had paid for the Herald ad, and in fact hadn’t even seen it.
Luckily, we then ran into publishing bunny Russel Pergament (umpteen media startups – and counting), who told us that Charles Jacobs had paid for the ad “with contributions.”
Okay then. Now we know.
Meanwhile, Jeff Kuhner finally showed up 20 minutes late and, before leading the crowd in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, noted that when 50 #BlackLivesMatter protestors rallied recently in Boston, “all the media elites showed up.”
His point was, no media – elite or otherwise (except for the hardreading staff) – showed up at yesterday’s protest.
[Editor’s Note: This post is being typed ’round midnight on Sunday, so we’ll check this morning for any news reports.]
But – at least from Kuhner’s Twitter feed – the protest didn’t exactly ignite a firestorm on social media.
Here’s the entirety of @TheKuhnerReport yesterday:
We’re thinking @Britskii might be a fly, because we estimated maybe 150 people there.
Regardless . . .
Coincidentally, this ad ran in yesterday’s New York Times:
Just wondering: If 150 guys from the Warrior Legacy Foundation held a rally at the State House, think the media elites might cover that?
Thought so.
UPDATE: The Herald did send a photog after all. Snappy local tabloid page 20:
Hell, it’s the least the Herald could do after raking in the big bucks for last week’s ad, yeah?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #BlackLivesMatter, @Britskii, @TheKuhnerReport, Ad Hoc Committee Against U.S. Funding of Iranian Terror, Alan Dershowitz, Americans for Peace & Tolerance, Angela Rowling, Boston Herald, Charles Jacobs, firsty local tabloid, Googletron, Iran deal, Jeff Kuhner, Kinks, Pledge of Allegiance, Russel Pergament, Shaunna O'Connell, snappy local tabloid, The Kinks, Top of the Pops, Warrior Legacy Foundation | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
Well, that might be a bit overstated. Not to get technical about it.
But still . . .
Yesterday the hardreading staff noted this full-page ad in the Boston Herald.
We, of course, were curious about the players in this anti-Iran-deal groundswell, so we emailed Jeff Kuhner, placed a call to Rep. O’Connell, and reached out to Charles Jacob on APT’s Facebook page.
What did we get back?
Bubkes.
(To be fair graf goes here.)
To be fair, it was Friday afternoon before the penultimate summer weekend, but hey – everyone’s wired 24/7, right?
Anyway, two addenda:
1) APT is the Boston-based pro-Israel, anti-Muslim Americans for Peace & Tolerance. (We’ve undoubtedly pissed off both sides with that description.)
2) Plug “Ad Hoc Committee Against U.S. Funding of Iranian Terror” into the Googletron and this pops up:
Yes! We’re Number One, We’re Top of the Pops!
Official Campaign Outsider Musical Interlude™
Gotta love The Kinks.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Hoc Committee Against U.S. Funding of Iranian Terror, Alan Dershowitz, Americans for Peace & Tolerance, Boston Herald, Charles Jacobs, firsty local tabloid, Googletron, Jeff Kuhner, Kinks, Shaunna O'Connell, The Kinks, Top of the Pops | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
From our Local Dailies’ DisADvantage desk
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, it’s a rare day that the Boston Herald gets a full-page ad the Boston Globe hasn’t. But today’s one of ’em.
Firsty local tabloid, page 3:
Interesting, yes?
But try to get any information on this ‘Ad Hoc Committee Against U.S. Funding of Iranian Terror’ outfit, and you get bubkes.
From the Googletron:
So we’re now trying to contact Jeff Kuhner or Shaunna O’Connell or Charles Jacobs to find out who paid for this ad and presumably is organizing Sunday’s rally. We might even try Alan Dershowitz.
As always, we’ll keep you posted.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Hoc Committee Against U.S. Funding of Iranian Terror, Alan Dershowitz, Boston Herald, Charles Jacobs, firsty local tabloid, Googletron, Jeff Kuhner, Shaunna O'Connell | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
As the hard reading staff noted yesterday, the Boston dailies have reached a split decision on which high-profile local trials they’re covering: The Globe has been on the Owen Labrie alleged rape trial, while the Herald has been all over the Michelle Carter alleged text-message manslaughter case.
Today, though, the Globe doubled down with Laura Crimaldi’s piece on Metro Page One:
‘It’s now or never,’ text said to friend
Teen urged to kill himself, DA alleges
NEW BEDFORD — She professed her love for him and promised to care for his grieving family when he was gone. All he had to do, she said, was take some Benadryl and let a combustion engine poison him with carbon monoxide. A life without pain awaited in heaven, she said.
“You have to just do it. . . . Tonight is the night. It’s now or never,” said one of the text messages Michelle Carter, then 17, is alleged to have sent to Conrad Henri Roy III in the days before his 2014 suicide.
The text message, among thousands the pair was said to have exchanged before Roy, 18, was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his truck in Fairhaven on July 13, 2014, has become public as Bristol County prosecutors fight a defense request to have the involuntary manslaughter case against Carter thrown out.
Not to get technical about it, but the Herald’s Jessica Heslam had that story yesterday.
Then again, at least the lately local broadsheet did something on the trial it’s been largely ignoring.
The same cannot be said for the fusty local tabloid. The Herald is still not covering the St. Paul’s School case in New Hampshire, which is odd since you’d think the class issue – fancy prep school, entitled tradition of the senior salute, etc. – would appeal to the Heraldniks.
No? Huh.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Thomson, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Conrad Roy, fusty local tabloid, Jessica Heslam, lately local broadsheet, Laura Crimaldi, Michelle Carter, One Town Two Different Worlds, Owen Labrie, St. Paul's School | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk
There are currently two high-profile trials in the Boston area involving young people, but the local dailies only see one. Different ones.
The Boston Herald has gone all in on the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michelle Carter, who prosecutors say hounded New Bedford teen Conrad Roy into committing suicide last year.
Saturday’s Page One:
And page 5:
Today’s Herald gives Jessica Heslam’s piece all of page 3.
‘We’re doing horrible’
Grandmother: No ‘moving on’ from tragic death
Janice Roy stood in her Mattapoisett backyard looking out at beautiful Buzzards Bay as she recalled her oldest grandchild, who prosecutors say took his own life last summer under pressure from his girlfriend.
A few hours earlier yesterday, Janice had sat through a gut-wrenching hearing in New Bedford Juvenile Court, where the attorney for Michelle Carter — the Plainville teen charged with causing the death of her beloved grandson — argued to have the involuntary manslaughter charge against her thrown out.
In one of thousands of text message exchanges, Carter told 18-year-old Conrad Roy III that his family would “get over” his suicide and “move on.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Crosstown, the Boston Globe has limited its coverage of the Michelle Carter trial to a B2 news brief today.
On the other hand, the stately local broadsheet is all over the case of Owen Labrie, the prep-school graduate accused of raping a 15-year old girl last year. We count seven pieces on the trial in the past week, with this one on Metro Page One today.
Labrie said he had sex with girl, peers testify
N.H. prep school classmates recall night of alleged rape
CONCORD, N.H. — In often crude language, four current and former students at St. Paul’s School testified Monday that Owen Labrie told them he had sex with a 15-year-old
girl who accuses him of rape, undercutting claims by Labrie’s defense team that the two did not have intercourse.
Andrew Thomson, who was Labrie’s roommate at the elite Concord prep school, testified that Labrie told him on the night of the alleged attack in May 2014 that he had taken the teenager’s virginity.
“He seemed a little taken aback, but overall happy” after the encounter, said Thomson, now a student at Brown University. “He seemed to be in a good mood.”
Not so much anymore, though.
The feisty local tabloid, meanwhile, has had nothing about the Labrie trial in its print edition, and just this Associated Press report on the web.
The hardreading staff isn’t sure there’s some deeper meaning in the split decision by the papers; we just know – say it with us – it’s good to live in a two-daily town.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Thomson, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Conrad Roy, Jessica Heslam, Michelle Carter, One Town Two Different Worlds, Owen Labrie, St. Paul's School | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
The hardreading staff normally likes to ignore Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr(toon), but every now and again we just can’t help ourselves.
Herald Track Gal Gayle Fee has this update today on that fundraiser the autoheirotic Ernie Boch Jr. is throwing at his $30 million Norwood manse for Donald Trump.
Boch Trump-ets upcoming fundraiser
Car czar Ernie Boch Jr. said the guest list for his Aug. 28 private fundraiser for Donald Trump now tops 700 and his office has fielded hundreds of calls from fans of the White House wannabe who want in.
“People are calling me who I haven’t talked to in 30 years!” Boch told the Track. “This thing is more popular than I ever imagined — and it’s pretty bipartisan. This is not a Republican gathering by any stretch of the imagination.”
Boch said he’s even heard from a handful of Democratic officials who want to come to the event but who can’t, for obvious reasons, write a check to the GOP presidential hopeful.
“That’s why were doing cash or check at the door,” he said.
Ha!
For your money you’ll get “cocktails, live music by rock cover band Fortune, a live broadcast by Herald columnist/radio yakker Howie Carr and food by chef Tony Ambrose.”
Carr’s presence in helping raise money for the bloated billionaire makes perfect sense since he’s a total Trump groupie, with today’s column Exhibit Umpteen. Of course, Carr long ago surrendered his press credentials in favor of GOP fundraising, as the redoubtable Dan Kennedy has noted several times.
File under: Keep on spinnin’.
5 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: autoheirotic, Boston Herald, Dan Kennedy, Donald Trump, Ernie Boch Jr., Fortune, Gayle Fee, Howie Carr, Howie Carr(toon), Inside Track, Media Nation, Tony Ambrose, Track Gal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
The other day the hardreading staff noted the following regarding last week’s Target/Sully’s rumpus:
We’re not sure which t-shirt Target is in the process of discontinuing, but the retail chain should definitely consider dumping its Free Brady knockoff, which got Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in ice water yesterday (via Boston Daily’s Kyle Clauss).
Baker apologized.
Anyone got a Free Baker t-shirt in the works?
Turns out someone did. From today’s Boston Herald:
Marty chills out for ALS
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh answered the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge thrown down by the governor — and may have one-upped him in the process.
Gov. Charlie Baker doused himself with a bucket of ice water on the steps of the State House on Monday to raise awareness and money for ALS research, and as is customary, challenged others to join him, including Walsh.
The mayor happily accepted, and yesterday he took the Ice Bucket Challenge outside City Hall, wearing a “Free Baker” T-shirt — a dig at the “Free Brady” T-shirt Baker wore earlier in the week.
Okay then. Proves at least someone is listening.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: ALS, Barstool Sports, Boston Daily, Boston Herald, Charlie Baker, El Pres, Erika Winkels, Free Baker, Free Brady, Green Monstah, ice bucket challenge, Kyle Clauss, Marty Walsh, Peter Frates, Sully's, Target | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 