March 7, 2014
Tough sledding for Scott Brown (R-Elsewhere) in the feisty local tabloid today: No snow (and yes, I’m looking’ at you, Marv).
The Brownout starts right off on Page One. (And a warm Two-Daily Town welcome to our first Inexplicable Little Green Three!)
From there, it’s on to the low-priced spread inside.
You’ve got some knee-buckling poll numbers from David Paleologos there, along with long-face analysis from John Nucci. (On the next page Howie Carr does some whistling past the graveyard for good measure.)
All in all, not the best press day for Downturn Scottie.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: 'No' Hampshire, Boston Herald, David Paleologos, Downturn Scottie, Howie Carr, Jeanne Shaheen, John Nucci, Scott Brown, Two-Daily Town | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 6, 2014
From our There But for the Grace of God desk
Like Halley’s Comet, a correction in in the Boston Herald is something to both marvel at and celebrate.
So it is with the note that appears at the top of page 2 in today’s Herald.
That would be this page 12 yesterday, which reported the murder of Brockton four-year-old Chauncey Cohen.
And specifically this caption, which calls the victim’s father by the alleged killer’s name.
Ouch.
The hardreading staff has nothing but sympathy for the Heraldniks here, since this kind of error is the monster under every journalist’s bed. Good for the Herald for not burying its mistake, but correcting it with the prominence it deserves.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Antonio Durham, Boston Herald, Brockton, Chauncey Cohen, Chet Cohen, Correction, Halley's Comet | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 5, 2014
Ernie Boch Jr. is one smart guy.
First he takes the old man’s car kingdom and turns it into a dynasty. He has his own band, his own charitable foundation, and throws Bochanalias at his mansion in Norwood that wind up in the Wall Street Journal.
And today he ran this ad in the Boston Globe.
And the stately local broadsheet returned the favor with this piece posted to its (New! Metered!!) website about 20 minutes ago.
Car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. will raise hourly wages
Hikes minimum rate for his employees; announces decision as Obama visits area
Car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. had a message for President Obama to read when he arrived in Boston on Wednesday. Boch isn’t waiting for the government to 
raise the minimum wage.
“President Obama: I did it!” he wrote in a signed, full-page ad that appeared in Wednesday’s Boston Globe. Boch, a Republican who has supported political candidates from both parties, said he will raise the pay of his minimum wage workers to $10.10 on April 1.
“I believe that, even above minimum wage, it’s extremely difficult to make a living, especially with a family and expenses,” Boch said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m doing what I think is the right thing, which is what Obama is proposing. I’m doing my part.”
Boch’s also doing his part to keep this a Two-Daily Town: He ran the same ad in the Boston Herald.
Actually, not exactly the same ad. Notice the “Advertisement . . . Advertisement . . . Advertisement” at the top of the Herald ad?
Not there in the Globe version.
Who’da thunk the feisty local tabloid would ever be more transparent than the Globe?
Will wonders never cease.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #LivingWageNE, @ErnieBochJr, Boch Automotive Enterprises, Bochanalias, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Ernie Boch Jr., minimum wage, President Obama, Step in Line, Wall Street Journal | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 3, 2014
As the hardreading staff noted last week, CommonWealth Magazine broke this story about Boston Mayor Marty Walsh reassessing yet another sweetheart deal for the Red Sox and Fenway Park.
Walsh reviewing Red Sox deal
Agreement makes permanent Van Ness Street arrangement
THE ADMINISTRATION OF Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said it is reviewing an agreement the city struck with the Boston Red Sox in October that formalized a long-standing arrangement allowing the club to close off Van Ness Street during Fenway Park events.
The agreement, signed by Red Sox president Larry Lucchino and Mayor Thomas Menino’s police and transportation commissioners, makes permanent what appears to have been an informal arrangement between the club and the city allowing the team to close off the section of Van Ness next to Fenway during games. The Red Sox typically used part of the street for employee parking, paying no fee to the city to do so.
We also noted that the story was Xerox-reported by numerous other news outlets – including the Boston Herald and the Associated Press – without crediting CommonWealth.
What we failed to note was this further rip-off by the Herald.
Reporter Colman Herman wrote this in his piece: “No other single private entity is allowed to close off a street in Boston on a regular basis.”
In Richard Weir’s Herald report, that sentence is placed in the mouth of Gregory Sullivan, “the former state former [sic] inspector general . . . [who] dismisses the Sox’ arguments as ‘irrelevant and a smokescreen.'”
“This is another precious gem dropped into the Red Sox basket at the expense of the taxpayers,” Sullivan, the research director of the Pioneer Institute, said of the Van Ness Street contract. “It’s a public street owned by the city of Boston. And no private party should have exclusive rights to use it in this way without compensating the city. Period. … No other single private entity is allowed to close off a street in Boston on a regular basis.” [Emphasis added]
We have it on good authority that Sullivan contends he never said that last part.
Back to you, Boston Herald and Richard Weir.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Associated Press, Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, Colman Herman, CommonWealth Magazine, Fenway Park, Larry Lucchino, Marty Walsh, Richard Weir, Tom Menino, Van Ness, Xerox-reported | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 2, 2014
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, Mrs. John Henry (a.k.a. Linda Pizutti) is heading up the John-Henry-owned Boston Globe’s GRANT program, which purports to provide financial assistance to local community programs through Globe-subscriber contributions.
That’s all well and good, but Saturday’s Globe seemed to cross the line with this item in its Business section.
Really, Globeniks: You wanna start using your newshole as a marketing tool?
Isn’t that supposed to be the exclusive province of the Boston Herald?
Just askin’.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Daily Briefing, Globe Readers and Non-Profits Together, Globeniks, GRANT, John Henry, Linda Pizzuti, Linda Pizzuti Henry | Permalink
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February 28, 2014
Yesterday, CommonWealth Magazine broke this story on its website:
Walsh reviewing Red Sox deal
Agreement makes permanent Van Ness Street arrangement
THE ADMINISTRATION OF Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said it is reviewing an agreement the city struck with the Boston Red Sox in October that formalized a long-standing arrangement allowing the club to close off Van Ness Street during Fenway Park events.
The agreement, signed by Red Sox president Larry Lucchino and Mayor Thomas Menino’s police and transportation commissioners, makes permanent what appears to have been an informal arrangement between the club and the city allowing the team to close off the section of Van Ness next to Fenway during games. The Red Sox typically used part of the street for employee parking, paying no fee to the city to do so.
“We are currently reviewing the agreement, and compensation is one of the issues that we will consider during this review,” said Walsh spokeswoman Kate Norton.
As day follows the night, today’s Boston Herald featured this piece of xerox journalism:
Marty Walsh digs into Fenway’s deals
The Walsh administration said yesterday it is examining two 2013 contracts the city inked with the Red Sox granting the team exclusive rights to public 
streets — arrangements made in the final months of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s tenure.
“We are currently reviewing the agreement, and compensation is one of the issues that we will consider during this review,” Kate Norton, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said of a little-known “public safety order” city officials signed in October giving the Red Sox permission to seal off Van Ness Street during game days and other major events at Fenway.
Nowhere in the piece is CommonWealth given credit.
Ditto for these other news organizations, which picked up the story from the Associated Press. (Before anyone gets all shirty about it, news outlets add info to AP reports all the time. Just not in this case.)
The Boston Globe, meanwhile, played catch-up, posting a piece to its website at 6 am.
But at least the Globe gave credit where credit’s due.
The Walsh review was first reported by Commonwealth Magazine online Thursday.
Cold comfort, but better than the nothingburgers CommonWealth got from everyone else, yeah?
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CommonWealth Magazine, Fenway Park, Kate Norton, Larry Lucchino, Marty Walsh, Red Sox, Thomas M. Menino, Van Ness Street, Yawkey Way | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 28, 2014
From our Walt Whitman desk
As the hardreading staff has repeatedly noted, the Boston Herald has been on the tragically inept Massachusetts Department of Children and Families like Brown on Williamson.
But it’s never official until the feisty local tabloid salutes itself.
Consider it official. From today’s Herald:
Special bonus from the firsty local tabloid: this editorial (“Lying on the record”), which – hold on to your hat! – actually quotes the Boston Globe. Twice.
(There’s also this report on yesterday’s lost cover teen being found unharmed, and a thoroughly predictable Michael Graham column.)
Crosstown, the Globe front-paged the story that the paper had posted on its website yesterday.
So now both local dailies are on the case(workers). As they should be.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Brown on Williamson, DCF, Department of Children and Families, Michael Graham, Olga Roche, Walt Whitman | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 28, 2014
Fact #1: Jack Connors – former Hill Holliday and Partners Healthcare honcho – is wired like Con Ed.
Fact #2: Connors ran this ad in Thursday’s Boston Globe, celebrating the 25th anniversary of his consigliere Julie Joyce.
For the tiny-type impaired:
Fact #3: Julie Joyce is now wired like Con Ed.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Con Ed, Connors Family Office, Hill Holliday, Jack Connors, Julie Joyce, Partners Health | Permalink
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February 27, 2014
As the hardreading staff noted yesterday, the Boston Globe has been trailing the Herald in covering the nightmare known as the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
Exhibit Umpteen: Page One of today’s feisty local tabloid.
Crosstown, today’s print edition of the Globe has nothing on DCF. But look what hit the web around 10:45 this morning:
It’s a doozie:
Hundreds of children may be missing in state child welfare system
Foster child Alisia Laboa just turned 16 this month — but there was no traditional Sweet 16 party for her.
Laboa ran away from a state-supervised group home in New Bedford in December, prompting State Police to issue a public appeal for help in finding her. Laboa’s name and photo are posted on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website under the headline, “Help Bring me Home.”
On any given day, as many as hundreds of children in Massachusetts’ welfare system are missing, including 134 foster children as young as 13 whom the state listed as “on the run” as of Feb. 2. Social workers stopped checking on another 13 children recently because their parents were uncooperative, rebuffing caseworkers or moving without leaving a forwarding address.
Beyond that, the state doesn’t even track kids who flee from allegedly abusive parents or guardians.
And yet, the Globe report says, DCF commissioner Olga Roche “told lawmakers at a hearing last month that she was certain there were no other children in her agency’s care who were in danger or missing like Jeremiah Oliver, the 5-year-old Fitchburg boy who disappeared last year while under the state’s watch.”
Whereupon this exchange took place:
“Can you give me and the other 6 million people of the Commonwealth the assurance that you know that every single one of those 36,000 children in your care today are present, alive and healthy?” asked state Representative David P. Linsky, chairman of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight. “Can you give me that assurance that there are no other Jeremiah Olivers out there today?”
“Yes,” Roche said firmly. Asked whether she was “100 percent confident,” Roche again said yes.
This whole mess becomes more disgraceful by the day. Welcome to the cleanup, Globeniks.
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Alisia Laboa, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, David P. Linsky, DCF, Department of Children and Families, Jeremiah Oliver, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Olga Roche | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 26, 2014
The feisty local tabloid has been on the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families like Brown on Williamson for weeks now. And today is no exception, starting at the top of Page One.
Then there’s the over-the-top page 5.
From Laurel Sweet’s report:
The devastated victim of a sexually abusive DCF-approved therapist today described his “torture,” moments before his predator was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“I find it ironic that a person who claims to be helping kids was actually destroying their lives. And he nearly destroyed mine,” the now-17-year-old boy told Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christine M. Roach. “I will never fully get over the despicable things he did to me. Despite this, I will face this awful truth in my past and fight to stay in control of my feelings of hurt, anger, sadness, and betrayal. One thing that would go a long way in my healing would be that this man, who stands before you today in judgment, faces serious consequences for what he has done so he can pay the price for his evil actions. This man is a cruel and abusive man who needs to be kept from other children so they will never have to experience the torture he perpetrated on me.”
It’s yet another indictment of a state agency that has thoroughly lost its way.
The (unlicensed) therapist, Kenneth Edwards of Dorchester, received “the mandatory state minimum sentence of 10 years for sexually assaulting the boy when he was 13.”
That was not well-received by “Edwards’ family and church supporters.”
It also was not covered by the Boston Globe.
Not to get technical about it.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Christine M. Roach, DCF, Department of Children and Families, Kenneth Edwards, Laurel Sweet, Olga Roche, Suffolk Superior Court | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 