Brown Rally Goes Chop Chop To Globe Front Page

September 26, 2012

Yesterday’s rally shenanigans by staffers of Sen. Scott Brown (Whomp ’em) went straight to the front page 0f today’s Boston Globe.

Republican aides shown doing war chants

Warren decries actions outside Brown event

In a tough new ad and in his attacks at last week’s debate, Senator Scott Brown has stoked questions about Elizabeth Warren’s professed Native American ancestry. But the difficulty of seizing on the controversy without crossing into uncomfortable racial territory became apparent Tuesday with the release of a video showing Republican staff members, including an aide in Brown’s Senate office, performing tomahawk chops and war whoops outside one of his campaign events.

Brown said such behavior is “not something I condone,” but declined to apologize.

“The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that Professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody, a Native American, and used that for an advantage, a tactical advantage,” Brown said.

Pretty lame. But there was no ‘splainin’ from Brown in the Herald, which dismissed the story with a page 4 squib:

Warren on tomahawk chop video: Cut it out!

Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren says she was “appalled” at a video that appeared to show supporters of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown — including at least one staffer — performing war whoops and tomahawk chops, saying if one of her campaign workers did such a thing there would be “serious consequences.”

Asked whether she was appalled as an American Indian, Warren told reporters: “I am appalled as an American.”

“I think everyone knew what he was up to,” said Warren, who has been dogged by a growing scandal over her unsupported claims of Cherokee heritage and her professional claims of minority status.

This isn’t going to get any prettier, folks.

 

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Debate and Switch

September 24, 2012

Both local dailies front-page debate stories today as campaign season shifts into high(er) gear.

Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

 

 

 

The Globe piece is pretty straightforward:

First debate called critical for Mitt Romney

Higher stakes than for Obama

After months of sniping from a distance, President Obama and Mitt Romney are nearing the unsparing crucible of one-on-one debates that could alter the dynamics of the presidential campaign.

For Romney, particularly, the stakes are enormous.

After a month of missteps and missed opportunities — from his convention speech, to his reaction after the US ambassador’s death in Libya, to a video in which he described nearly half the country as government-dependent “victims” — Romney faces three debates in the national spotlight, beginning Oct. 3 in Denver, that could bolster or bury his chances.

“Unquestionably, he has to do well in the first debate,” said Rob Gray, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser in Romney’s successful 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor. “There’s more on the line for him, whereas Obama has proven before that he can handle it.”

The Herald, on the other hand, has three – count ’em, three – columnists on debate patrol. Start with Joe Battenfeld’s cover story:

A glimpse inside Mitt’s strategy

He’s not Mitt Romney, but he got to play one in debate practice. And he says the real Mitt needs to resurrect his personable performance from 10 years ago to beat President Obama in their upcoming face-to-face showdowns.

Jeffrey Robbins, a Boston attorney who played the role of Romney as Democrat Shannon O’Brien prepared for the debates in the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race, divulged for the first time key details of the Democrats’ strategy to turn Romney into “Gordon Gekko” — a strategy that ultimately failed then.

Robbins predicts Obama’s debate plan will come right out of the playbook 10 years ago, when Democratic gubernatorial nominee O’Brien tried to reinforce Romney’s image as a greedy, out-of-touch businessman.

Bit of a stretch there, eh?

Next up is Holly Robichaud’s piece giving advice to Romney.

Like Brown, Mitt must pack a punch in his debate

Last week it was great to see an aggressive U.S. Sen. Scott Brown take on Lizzy Warren. After months of her endless whining commercials, Brown called her out on multiple issues — including her fake American Indian status, helping Travelers Insurance avoid paying poisoned asbestos workers and her whopping $350,000 salary for teaching one class at Harvard University.

Brown had the right combination of talking directly to voters and discrediting Fauxahontas. He showed how a candidate can remain likable, but still deliver a solid punch.

Our former Gov. Mitt Romney would do well to take a page out of this playbook. President Obama is not going to be forced out of the White House if Romney keeps playing defense. It is time to put points on the board.

Finally, Kimberly Atkins weighs in:

Wisdom of pols’ rules is debatable

WASHINGTON — The debate season is in full swing, and with it we are seeing the emergence of a nifty approach by some candidates as they prepare to face their rivals face-to-face: avoidance by agreement.

The true pioneer of this debate is U.S. Rep. John Tierney who, as the Herald reported, insisted sponsors of two of four scheduled debates with GOP challenger Richard Tisei focus only on certain topics and preclude the participants from asking questions of one another.

Of course, this conveniently will allow Tierney to avoid an issue both Tisei and national Republicans have focused on: his in-laws’ gambling ring and his wife’s federal tax-evasion conviction.

Atkins goes on to relate other debate-related kerfuffles before offering some free advice to candidates, such as “[Elizabeth Warren] could try to throw U.S. Sen. Scott Brown off  his well-rehearsed game by demanding that the candidates be barred from using the word ‘professor,’ thanking the moderator after each question or referring to a truck at any point.”

The hardreading staff would be all for that.

 

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Brown Sugar From Herald On New Poll

September 20, 2012

After four consecutive polls showed Elizabeth Warren leading incumbent Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, the Boston Herald finally got some news it could plaster all over Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

(Extra credit: Compare and contrast, in clear idiomatic English, the photos the Herald chose of the two.)

The Globe, for its part, ran the story Metro p. 3:

New poll shows Scott Brown leading Elizabeth Warren

A new poll shows US Senator Scott Brown with a lead over Elizabeth Warren, a break from a string of four previous polls that showed Warren leading the race.

The new University of Massachusetts Lowell/Boston Herald telephone poll of 524 voters, released Wednesday night, showed Brown leading 49 percent to 45 percent among those deemed likely to vote.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 13 to 17 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The organization’s previous poll, taken in December, showed Warren leading by 7 percentage points.

In fairness, that’s exactly where the Globe ran this piece two days ago:

Warren ahead of Brown in 3rd poll

A third new poll has found Elizabeth Warren pulling ahead of Senator Scott Brown, giving the Democratic challenger momen tum before their first debate Thursday.

A Suffolk University/WHDH-TV survey released late Monday had Warren at 48 percent and Brown at 44 percent, within the poll’s margin of error but the opposite of a similar poll in May. That Suffolk/WHDH survey had Brown at 48 percent and Warren at 47 percent.

Pollster David Paleologos attributed the shift to Warren’s national exposure through her speech at the Democratic ­National Convention, which allowed her to share a platform with President Obama, former president Bill Clinton, and other party luminaries.

(The hardsearching staff couldn’t find yesterday’s piece, about the fourth poll, in either our dead-tree edition or the Globe’s ePaper edition.)

Probably doesn’t matter. It likely all changes after tonight’s debate.

 

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Locals Rise to Phoenix Redesign

September 19, 2012

The Boston dailies ran entirely true to form in their coverage of the Boston Phoenix facelift (and a little lipo, we assume).

Yesterday’s Globe had a front-page feature that looked at the rapid erosion of  local macher Stephen Mindich’s media holdings.

A hybrid rises from the old Boston Phoenix

Alternative paper’s longtime publisher adjusts to changing times

As summer approached, staff meetings at The Boston Phoenix grew more frequent amid mounting concerns about layoffs, an announced move to new offices, and the future of the Phoenix itself.

One indication of the meetings’ importance was the presence of owner and publisher Stephen Mindich. He has guided the paper’s fortunes since the 1970s, making it the centerpiece of a youth-oriented media conglomerate, yet he had scaled back day-to-day management duties while his son Brad ran the company.

The outcome of those staff discussions has left many observers wondering if the Phoenix they have known and read for decades — a pioneering alternative weekly paper celebrated for its lively coverage of politics, media, and the arts — will be around much longer.

This Thursday, The Boston Phoenix will formally merge with its sister publication, Stuff, a glossy biweekly, into a publication called simply The Phoenix. As a newsprint entity, the old Boston Phoenix will cease to exist.

As has WFNX-FM, stripped for parts like a car left overnight on the Cross Bronx Expressway (signal to Clear Channel for $14 million, staff to boston.com to start up Radio BDC, call letters to the web for wfnx.com). Spanish-language paper El Planeta was also jettisoned. The Mindich media empire is down to a sandlot.

Crosstown at the Herald today, the Track Gals (and Megan!) have something much dishier:

Phoenix sex ads under Twitter attack

The Boston Phoenix, which will debut a new glossy-mag look this week, was under Twitter attack yesterday after someone hijacked the name of its new adult rag and began tweeting X-rated missives at advertisers, public officials and Phoenix staffers.

@BostonAtNite is not the Twitter handle of the Phoenix’s new adult publicationBoston At Nite, according to editor at large Peter Kadzis. But the “Parody” account was tweeting up Mayor Tom Menino, Attorney General Martha Coakley, clubs and bands that advertised on the Boston At Nite website and columnists for the alternative weekly.

“Find your underage sex slave today! Sex trafficking for all,” said @BostonAtNite, adding the word “Parody” so you’d know it wasn’t real.

Not surprisingly, the Phoenix folks are not amused.  “[Editor at large Peter] Kadzis said the Phoenix has complained to Twitter about the account and is trying to get it taken down. ‘Any sick (bleep) can sign up for a Twitter handle,’ Kadzis said. ‘My prediction — and it’s probably true — is that there’s a connection to a rival publication.'”

As in the Weekly Dig, whose publisher Jeff Lawrence, the Track Gals (and Megan!) point out, just happens to be one of the whopping 19 tweeps who follow @BostonAtNite.

Fun for the whole family! Except for the X-rated part, of course.

 

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The Herald Warrens a Look Today

September 18, 2012

Our feisty local tabloid wins the Massachusetts U.S. Senate bakeoff today, with the old  good news/bad news combo platter for Elizabeth Warren.

Bad first: John McCain gives Warren the tomahawk chop  in this piece:

John McCain: Elizabeth Warren’s indian claims ‘bizarre’

U.S. Sen. John McCain — who endorsed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown this weekend — poked fun at Elizabeth Warren’s claim to a Native American heritage in an interview yesterday, saying he found it both amusing and strange.

“I’m entertained. I just think it’s bizarre,” McCain said of Warren’s purported Cherokee and Delaware tribal roots. “I know lots and lots of Native Americans, they have a very huge presence in my state and I’ve yet to meet one of them who claims to be related to Elizabeth Warren.”

Well, that settles that, doesn’t it?

On the other hand,  this piece has to be music to Warren’s ears.

Former Boston bigs: Menino’s Elizabeth Warren endorsement coming soon

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has yet to throw his political might behind Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren — despite the Harvard professor being on the brink of crucial televised debates — but City Hall observers predict an endorsement is imminent.

“I’m sure he’s going to endorse her,” said former Hub Mayor Ray Flynn, who has endorsed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in the heated race. “I think he’s with her 100 percent. His people are with her. I think it’s just a question of the timing that is the most beneficial, politically, to her.”

Menino was unavailable for comment yesterday but his spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, said: “The mayor remains focused on the business of the city. He will make his political endorsements when he believes the time is right.”

Yeah, can’t wait for the Mayah of Denmahk to be – or not to be – involved in this campaign.

Meanwhile, crosstown at the Globe this editorial calls on Menino to just quit dithering. (It also plays the Hamlet card, but the hardworking staff swears to you we wrote the above before reading the Globe piece.)

Let’s see if Menino knows a hawk from a handsaw.

 

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Running in Different Social Circles

September 17, 2012

The local gossip gangs went their separate ways over the weekend, as their columns revealed today.

The Boston Herald Track Gals (and Megan!) motored west:

Taylor Swift’s romantic western Mass. weekend

Taylor Swift made the journey out to western Massachusetts this weekend to visit her high school honey, Deerfield Academy junior Conor Kennedy, but there were no football games or school dances on the couple’s agenda. In fact, their weekend agenda was more like a middle-aged couple’s than a pair of young lovers …

The duo kicked it off with a low-key dinner at the appropriately named Taylor’s Tavern in Greenfield, where Swift, looking lovely in a green dress, ordered a salad, and even let Conor grab a few bites. He sported the typical prep-school “uniform” of shorts and a button-down shirt, and ordered a burger.

But don’t worry that 22-year-old Taylor is a negative influence on Conor, who’s got to wait a few years before he can legally hit the bars. Staff told the Track that the couple’s beverages of choice were all non-alcoholic.

Okay . . . that’s plenty of that.

Meanwhile, back in the civilized world, the Boston Globe Namesniks went the society route:

John Henry and Linda Pizzuti Henry host a big night for MGH

Red Sox owner John Henry and his wife, Linda Pizzuti Henry (who is pregnant), opened their Brookline home on Saturday night to a crowd of more than 400 Massachusetts General Hospital supporters who have contributed to its $1.5 billion charity campaign. The dinner party included a quick performance by Brandeis-educated Broadway actress Mary Faber (inset), who recently starred opposite Nick Jonas in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Guests included New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft and his wife, Patti, Jack and Eileen Connors, Red Sox chairman Tom Werner . . . 

And a bunch of other usual suspects.

For some inexplicable reason, the hardreading staff never got its invitation. Maybe next time.

 

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Dime Dropping in the Athol Statehouse Race

September 17, 2012

A Sunday Boston Herald editorial highlighted certain shenanigans in the state rep race between Athol Board of Selectman chair Susannah Lee (R-Huh?) and incumbent Denise Andrews (D-Dime Dropper).

Politics hits a new low

Politics in one small corner of this state has apparently gone right over the cliff with the Democratic incumbent calling in the cops to report — falsely as it turned out — a cocaine buy by her Republican challenger.

No, folks, you can’t make this stuff up.

The local Fox channel broke the story this week that police in Athol were sent on what amounted to a two-week-long wild goose chase after a report was filed against Susannah Lee, chair of the Athol Board of Selectmen and a GOP candidate for state rep in a newly constructed district out there. A caller alleged Lee had purchased cocaine from a dealer, that the dealer had called the police (because, of course, that always happens), and that Athol police had showed up at Lee’s house and “took the cocaine from her possession,” according to the complaint filed with the police.

Apparently, none of it is true – at least according to the Fox 25 report (which makes Denise Andrews a total Athol).

But none of it is also in the Boston Globe.

Herald, 1. Globe, 0.

 

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In Praise of Editorial Cartoonists

September 14, 2012

The other night Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Center hosted a lecture by legendary illustrator Edward Sorel, whose editorial cartoons rank among the 20th century’s most searing commentary on American politics.

Helpful documentary by Sorel’s son Leo here.

Which got the hardreading staff to thinking:

How lucky are we that Boston has not one, but two editorial cartoonists in our local dailies.

First up, the Boston Herald’s reliable Jerry Holbert:

 

 

Next up, the Boston Globe’s inspired Dan Wasserman:

 

 

Unfortunately, editorial cartoonists are fast becoming an endangered species.

From the American Journalism Review:

Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, says there are fewer than 100 staff cartoonists in the country, down from about 150 in 1990 and about 280 in 1980.

Outside of New York, Boston might be the only town in America with two daily editorial cartoonists.

You should savor it while it lasts.

 

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Aly Ops

September 12, 2012

Needham gymnastics golden girl Aly Raisman was on the town  – The Big Town – yesterday, but the local dailies were right on top of it.

From the Boston Globe’s Namesniks:

Aly Raisman hangs with fashion elite in NYC

Talk about good company. Needham gold medalist Aly Raisman sat with “Gossip Girl” actress Michelle Trachtenberg , Katrina Bowden of “30 Rock,” and author/fashionista Lauren Conrad at the Badgley Mischka show during New York Fashion Week on Tuesday morning. The local Olympian also hung out with Kevin Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers) and his wife, Danielle Deleasa .

(Fashion elite? Really? Does Anna Wintour know?)

From the Boston Herald’s Track Gals (and Megan!):

Gymnast goes glam

Needham Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, left, hangs out with ‘The Hills’ star Lauren Conrad; ‘Married To Jonas’ star Danielle Jonas, wife of Jonas Brother Kevin; and Danielle’s sister Katie Delesa at the Badgley Mischka Spring 2013 show at Lincoln Center during New York’s Fashion Week.

 

Excellent! The hardreading staff thinks we’ve covered all of Aly’s new friends between the two papers.

 

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9/11 Front Pages

September 11, 2012

 

 

That’s about right.

 

(Tip o’ the pixel: The Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages)

 

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