August 29, 2016
Bad enough the Boston Globe dropped the Sunday edition of Zippy the Pinhead almost three years ago. Now apparently the daily version of the strip is gone as well.
From today’s not-so-funny pages:
Just for scale, here’s Saturday’s:
At least last time the Globeniks performed a Zipectomy, they had the decency to publish an editor’s note.
(Just for the record, WuMo no longer appears in the Globe’s increasingly lame Sunday Comics section.)
This time around, though, there’s not a word about the Globe’s dropping the strip altogether. That’s just wrong.
The hardreading staff is sending a note to Bill Griffith to ask what happened. Meanwhile, Boston Globe editor Brian (Hey – let’s reimagine the paper! We can use John Henry’s garage!) McGrory has now become a first-ballot entry into the Comic Strip Hall of Shame.
P.S. Here’s today’s Zippy that McGrory so shamefully withheld.
7 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Griffith, Boston Globe, Brian McGrory, Comic Strip Hall of Shame, WuMo, Zipectomy, Zippy the Pinhead | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 19, 2016
Quite a car-tastrophe in Downtown Crossing yesterday, leading to some quick heroics from locals and tourists alike. Correspondent Miguel Otárola had the story for the Boston Globe.
Car hits, injures 3 in tour group along Freedom Trail
Craig Caplan was selling Boston caps and T-shirts at noon Thursday from his carts near Washington and School streets when he heard an eruption of terror.
“There was a collective scream of about 100 people,” Caplan said. “Everybody screamed and came running.”
He turned his head and saw a scene of chaos. Bystanders surrounded a silver Mercedes-Benz that had just barreled into a tour group walking the Freedom Trail. They were lifting the car to free a woman pinned underneath. The driver had run into a nearby building, witnesses said.
Otárola also included this narrative: “[Bystander Brendan] Kearney spoke to [a] tour guide, who was dressed in a Colonial outfit. After the crash, the tour guide ‘went over to the car, opened the door, and put the car into park,’ Kearney said.”
Kearney went on to call the anonymous tour guide “a great citizen of Boston.”
At the Boston Herald, meanwhile, the tour guide not only had a name (Richard Holland), he also got a sidebar via reporter Antonio Planas.
Give this Downtown Crosstown bakeoff to the firsty local tabloid, no?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Antonio Planas, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Craig Caplan, Downtown Crossing, Downtown Crosstown bakeoff, firsty local tabloid, Mercedes-Benz, Miguel Otárola, Richard Holland | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 16, 2016
From our No Credit Where Credit’s Due desk
Nice piece by Laura Crimaldi in today’s Boston Globe about the return of a Korean War vet who died in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Remains of Korean War POW coming home to Cambridge
US Army Corporal Ronald M. Sparks spent his last night in Cambridge more than 65 years ago, baby-sitting for his three young nephews before he left to fight in the 
Korean War.
The night made a lasting impression on one of the boys, 3-year-old Bob, who woke up and found Sparks reading a newspaper in his family’s living room.
Sparks, who was 19 then, never returned.
But Bob, who met Sparks for the first and only time that night, has found his lost uncle and is bringing him home decades after he died in a prisoner-of-war camp in North Korea.
The Globe piece has everything you want in a human-interest story – drama, history, valor, persistence, and a happy, if bittersweet, ending.
It’s missing only one thing: A nod to Boston Herald columnist Joe Fitzgerald, who had the story in yesterday’s paper.
‘Uncle Ron is home at last’
Quest brings Korean War casualty back for burial
Bob Sparks was almost 4 the first time he saw his uncle Ron.
“It was just before he shipped out,” Sparks remembers. “He was babysitting me.
“When I awoke and saw him, I was frightened. I asked, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m your Uncle Ron, your dad’s little brother.’ He was in his uniform, and when I asked ‘Are you a soldier?’ he smiled and gave me this crisp salute. It’s my only personal memory of him.”
Ron Sparks, 19, then left the family home in Cambridge, bound for the Korean War with the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division . . .
It’s not unusual for one of the Boston dailies to draft off the other on certain stories, and it’s not like the Herald bats a thousand in the credit where credit’s due department. But still . . .
C’mon, Globe editors. Be a mensch.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bob Sparks, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Joe Fitzgerald, Korean War, Laura Crimaldi, Roland M. Sparks | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 25, 2016
As our kissin’ cousins at Campaign Outsider have noted, virtually every ad campaign for Legal Sea Foods over the past several years has been equal parts puerile and unfunny. But the current Berkowitz for President effort stands out for its excessively bad taste.
Back in March, there was this ad that drew protests from numerous quarters.
Last week the big guffaws came from the size of Donald Trump’s hands. Now comes this full-page ad in today’s Boston dailies.
Note that once again the Boston Herald has marked this “Advertisement,” and once again the Globe has not. Who ever imagined the thirsty local tabloid would be more fastidious than the $tately local broadsheet?
Regardless, Roger Berkowitz is getting hustled by his fancy-pants New York ad agency, DeVito/Verdi. In this case, he’s the fish.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #feeltheberk, #feelthejerk, $tately local broadsheet, Boston Globe, Boston Globe $ynergy, Boston Herald, Campaign Outsider, DeVito/Verdi, Hillary Clinton, Latino Rebels, Legal Sea Foods, piece of carp, Roger Berkowitz, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 18, 2016
As the hardreading staff has noted, ever since Roger Berkowitz hired New York ad agency DeVito/Verdi, Legal Sea Food’s advertising has largely been in bad taste – a little bit flashy, a little bit trashy. (Our kissin’ cousins at Campaign Outsider have noted the same.)
Back in March DeVito came up with the breakthrough concept of having Berkowitz run for president, employing the theme Feel the Berk. (Sure, lots of ads have featured fake political campaigns, but none of them involved Berkowitz.)
Representative samples:
Today came the latest installment, which ran in both Boston dailies.
Interestingly, the Herald ad (above) is labeled “Advertisement” – four times – while the Globe version is unlabeled. That says something about either the Herald editors or the paper’s readers. Or, possibly, both.
Regardless, one more piece of carp from the local fish house chain.
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: #feeltheberk, #feelthejerk, $tately local broadsheet, Boston Globe, Boston Globe $ynergy, Boston Herald, Campaign Outsider, DeVito/Verdi, Legal Sea Foods, piece of carp, Roger Berkowitz, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 13, 2016
As the hardreading staff recently noted, the Boston Globe has been less than forthcoming in its coverage of the quest for giving landmark status to the renowned Citgo sign.
That’s because the Globe has not disclosed that the paper has profited nicely from Citgo’s campaign to save the Kenmore Square icon.
(Boston University – where the hardreading staff moonlights as a mass communication professor – is looking to sell the Commonwealth Avenue building the Citgo sign sits atop.)
To recap the $tately local broadsheet’s connection:
Citgo has spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past few months running ads such as these in the Globe.
But no Globe stories – including today’s report that “[a] city board voted to launch the process of making the iconic electric sign an official city landmark” – have mentioned the paper’s financial profit from Citgo’s ad campaign.
As we have said before:
Rough estimate: At least eight quarter-page ads costing maybe $20,000.
So you say – $20,000? That’s lunch money at the Boston Globe.
True. But it’s lunch money the Globe should mention whenever it covers the Citgo sign rumpus.
And so we say again.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: #CITGOsign, $tately local broadsheet, 660 Beacon Street, Barnes & Noble at BU, Bertucci's, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston Sign, Boston University, Boston's Sign, BU, Change.org, Citgo sign, Cities Service Co., Cornwall's Pub, Gary Nicksa, Kenmore Square, Maria Stephanos, Newmark | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 8, 2016
A smashmouth piece in the Huffington Post this week about U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her pattern of political prosecutions has drawn attention in both local dailies, but, as usual, from different angles.
Yesterday’s Boston Globe featured a Joan Vennochi column with this lede:
POLITICAL CORRUPTION cases generate big headlines — and big push back.
Just ask US Attorney Carmen Ortiz. She made a big splash when she indicted two aides to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on charges they forced organizers of a music festival to hire union workers. But now, with Walsh presumed to be her ultimate prize, a posse of critics is throwing cold water on the prosecution.
Vennochi proceeded to cite criticism of Ortiz by former AG Martha Coakley, attorney Harvey Silverglate, and retired federal judge Nancy Gertner – all of whom were quoted in the HuffPost takedown.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, though, the focus was more on the question of Marty Walsh’s possible involvement in the Ortiz hit, given that she has already indicted two Walsh administration officials on charges of extortion.
Yesterday’s front page (Inexplicable Little Green Number sold separately):
The story inside has Walsh denying he’s “waging a PR counteroffensive” against Ortiz, but points out that “Walsh’s chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh, formerly served as chief of staff to Huffington Post Editor Arianna Huffington and as general manager of Huffington Post Live before joining the mayor’s inner circle.”
Today there’s no follow-up in the Globe, but the Herald has this piece by Dan Atkinson.
Call for answers on Huffington Post piece
PAC wants ‘public scrutiny’ re Walsh role
A national conservative group wants to see any communications between City Hall and the authors of a Huffington Post piece blasting U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, saying that if Mayor Martin J. Walsh or his staff engaged in a political hit job, they should be “held up to public scrutiny.”
A Herald front-page story yesterday quoted Walsh saying he and his aides had no involvement in the article, titled “This Federal Prosecutor Is Building A Career Indicting The Good Guys.” But the mayor admitted that he and his chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh — who used to work at The Huffington Post — knew the piece was in the works.
“Both the timeline and the mayor’s answer raised red flags for us,” said Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for America Rising PAC, which filed a public records request with the city for any emails and texts between the Walsh administration and The Huffington Post.
Just what Walsh needs right now, eh? One more group emauling him.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Amelia Chase, America Rising PAC, Arianna Huffington, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Carmen Ortiz, Dan Atkinson, Daniel A. Koh, Daniel Marans, Harvey Silverglate, Huffington Post, HuffPost, Joan Vennochi, Ken Brissette, Martha Coakley, Marty Walsh, Nancy Gertner, Ryan Grim, Timothy Sullivan, U.s. Attorney | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 6, 2016
Very good (samaritan) story in today’s local dailies.
Start with the Boston Herald piece by Jordan Graham and O’Ryan Johnson.
Cops hail cabbie after turning in nearly $200G
Bundles of bills found in bag
A Boston cabbie is being praised as a good Samaritan after finding and returning a passenger’s inheritance — nearly $200,000 in cold hard cash — accidentally left in the back of his taxi.
“Fifty percent of people say, ‘Yeah, you should have done that.’ The other 50 percent say, ‘You should have took it,’ but I’m not a crook,” said Raymond MacCausland, who found the green backpack filled with approximately $187,000 in cash in his cab on Saturday. “I always return things.”
Even the really big ones, apparently.
As for the absent-minded passenger, who told MacCausland he was homeless and moving into a motel, he wasn’t talking – at least to the Herald.
Reached by phone after the money was returned, the passenger declined to comment.
“I’m all set, I’m all set,” he said.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, however, it was a slightly different story in Nestor Ramos’s hands.
[W]hile MacCausland was driving around Back Bay with a small fortune in a tattered backpack, the man to whom the money belonged wasn’t worried.
“I knew he’d find me,” the man said. “I didn’t panic at all.”
Beyond that, Ramos also generated this gem:
Standing outside his hotel on Tuesday, the heir said he was going to take a year to recover from many months of homelessness and decades of hard living. He checked into a hotel and was still getting used to not having to hide his meager things from overnight thieves.
After that, he wasn’t sure: He’d been trying to find an apartment, but his credit is disastrous. He says he has more inheritance money coming in the years ahead, but was unsure of the terms.
Eventually, he said, “I’m going to do what I always said I’m going to do: Die in Prague.”
Note to Mr. Butterfingers: If you need a taxicab in Prague, check here.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Jordan Graham, Nestor Ramos, O'Ryan Johnson, Pine Street Inn, Prague, Raymond MacCausland | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 5, 2016
From our bottomless Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
As the hardreading staff has noted, when General Electric decided to move its corporate headquarters to Boston last April, GE celebrated its migration with this full-page ad in the Boston Globe.
But, as we also noted, GE ignored the Boston Herald.
The [ad’s] small type: “GE and Boston are the perfect combination to usher in a new digital industrial revolution. We’re proud to call the city that never stops making history our new home.”
But, apparently, not proud enough to run its ad in the Boston Herald.
Hey, GEniks: You’re moving to a two-daily town. Show the thirsty local tabloid some love, eh?
Since then GE – totally ignoring us – has run a series of full-page ads in the Globe but not the Herald, such as this one in May:
And, in yesterday’s Globe, yet another full-page suck-up.
We’ll say it again:
Hey, GEniks: You’re moving to a two-daily town. Show the thirsty local tabloid some love, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston headquarters, Boston Herald, Boston Public Schools, GE, GE Brilliant Career Labs, General Electric, Local Dailies DisADvantage, tax breaks, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 1, 2016
From our Late to the Rescue Party desk
The $tately local broadsheet really needs to get better at full disclosure.
Wednesday’s Boston Globe featured this piece about the impending sale of the Kenmore Square building that the fabled Citgo sign sits upon.
Push to protect the Citgo sign
Commission to consider bid for landmark status
Despite the Citgo sign’s storied spot on the Boston skyline, there are no city protections to keep it there.
Now, there’s a growing push to change that.
The Boston Landmarks Commission next month will take up a measure that could grant official landmark status to the sign above Kenmore Square. And an online petition supporting that plan received nearly 1,100 signatures in its first four days.
Back story: As the hardreading staff has dutifully noted, Boston University plans to sell 660 Beacon Street and several other adjoining buildings, but has has not made keeping the Citgo sign a condition of the sale. So, as the Globe piece reported, the Boston Preservation Alliance has launched a Change.org campaign to save the landmark sign.
But what the Globe piece did not report is that Citgo has run a series of Globe ads extolling the virtues of its sign.
Representative samples:
Rough estimate: At least eight quarter-page ads costing maybe $20,000.
So you say – $20,000? That’s lunch money at the Boston Globe.
True. But it’s lunch money the Globe should mention whenever it covers the Citgo sign rumpus.
Or is that just us.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: #CITGOsign, $tately local broadsheet, 660 Beacon Street, Barnes & Noble at BU, Bertucci's, Boston Globe, Boston Landmarks Commission, Boston Preservation Alliance, Boston Sign, Boston University, Boston's Sign, BU, Change.org, Citgo sign, Cities Service Co., Cornwall's Pub, Gary Nicksa, Kenmore Square, Maria Stephanos, Newmark | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 