Boston Herald Wants No More-a Healey on DraftKings

September 18, 2015

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is living in a fantasy world.

She’s hot on the heels of the hot sports “contest” website DraftKings, which has spent $81 million on TV spots in the past six weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal. But that’s not keeping Healey from nickel-and-diming the DraftKingpins. She’s investigating whether the so-called fantasy sports site is actually a betting scheme in sheep’s clothing. And, as per usual, the Boston dailies see her quest quite differently.

The Boston Globe plays it straight with a C1 piece below the fold.

 

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Crosstown at the Boston Herald, the story gets the expensive two-page spread.

 

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The punting local tabloid looks at the AG’s overreach from the fantasy fan’s point of view Owen Boss’s report, the legal perspective in Bob McGovern’s column,  and a John Sapochetti piece representing the umbrage-industrial complex.

And we’re betting we haven’t heard the last of this from the Heraldniks either.


Hark! The Herald! (Tsarnaev Defense Edition)

December 30, 2014

Today’s edition of the selfie local tabloid once again demonstrates its Heraldcentric theory of the universe, as it reports that the trial of  alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is all about, well, the Boston Herald.

Lawyers blast feds over Herald column

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers have again asked a judge to postpone his trial, challenging Dzhokhar Tsarnaevprosecutors’ claims about their preparation process and slamming a Herald column that criticized the defense’s repeated efforts to seek delays.

In the motion filed yesterday, Tsarnaev’s legal team disputes the government claim that they have refused to stipulate to any evidence — an acknowledgement that would preclude bringing in officials to testify about how it was acquired and handled.

 

The Herald column in question? This one:

 

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According to today’s report, “[t]he defense motion cites Herald reporter Bob McGovern’s Dec. 26 Full Court Press column, which referred to the defense’s ‘foot-dragging’ and ‘stall tactics’ as an example.”

Jackpot!

As you might expect, crosstown at the Boston Globe there’s nary a word about foot-dragging or stalling or stipulating . . . or the Herald.

Tsarnaev defense renews pitch to delay trial

Says prosecutors sent thousands of documents late

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Attorneys for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev renewed their push Monday to delay his death penalty trial, set to start in one week, until the fall.

In papers filed in US District Court, the attorneys for the 21-year-old, who is accused of detonating two bombs at the 2013 Marathon finish line along with his late brother, Tamerlan, said the government has handed over thousands of documents to them at the last moment.

As a result, the attorneys wrote, there is no way they can be ready to defend Tsarnaev both during the trial, and if he is convicted, during the penalty phase, where jurors will be asked to decide whether the former Cambridge resident deserves the death penalty.

 

One town, two different trials, eh?


Boston Herald Devotes Front Page to Bad Cos

December 11, 2014

From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk

Welcome once again to the parallel universes of the Boston dailies.

Exhibit Umpteen: Today’s coverage of the latest wrinkle in the Decline and Fall of Bill Cosby.

Boston Herald Page One:

 

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The story gets all of page 5, including a column by Bob McGovern and a news report from Erin Smith and Donna Goodison.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, the story – not surprisingly – gets buried at the bottom of today’s Names column.

But it’s not just story placement that distinguished the two papers. It’s the language they use that really sets them apart. Just a few examples (feisty tabloid on left, stately broadsheet on right):

embattled funnyman . . . Bill Cosby

potential game-changing legal loophole . . . defamation lawsuit

Cosby’s handlers . . . Cosby’s lawyer and publicist

lurid sexual assault accusations . . .  alleged attack

 

Try it yourself! It’s fun for the whole mishpocheh.


Hark! The Herald! (Ray Rice Edition)

September 10, 2014

From our Walt Whitman desk

Those fine folks at the feisty local tabloid have done it again!

 

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That’s right – the Herald has nabbed yet another coveted Top Ten Front Pages nod from the Newseum. (No link to yesterday’s – they’re not archived as far as the hardreading staff can tell.)

This is the fifth or sixth time the paper has trumpeted one of these impressive victories, which leads us ask: If the Boston Herald garners a Top Ten but does not tout it the next day, did the award actually happen?

We’re thinking not.