October 22, 2014
Start at the start:
Last Saturday’s Boston Herald featured this front page:
The story inside (as the hardreading staff noted at the time):
Activists want T bid derailed
Human rights and labor activists are voicing outrage that the Patrick administration could soon award a staggering $1.3 billion subway contract to a rail enterprise owned by the repressive Communist Chinese government, saying the deal would be a “terrible disgrace.”
“If the left-leaning Massachusetts blue staters love to boycott things that break the wrong way on issues of rights, why does China get a pass on all of that?” said Tom Cushman, a human rights activist and professor at Wellesley College.
“If this were an entity that was known to be hostile toward transgendered people or gay people or who violated the rights of minorities, people would be up in arms over a contract like this. But (they) do all those things. They are hostile toward all those people, but China doesn’t register on the screen of the morally outraged.”
Now comes the Boston Globe with this front page piece in yesterday’s edition.
T job’s top bid is from China
Subway car plan draws concerns on human rights
A railcar and locomotive manufacturer controlled by China’s government has emerged as the top bidder for a $566.6 million contract to supply the MBTA with new cars for the Red and Orange lines.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation board of directors is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the contract for CNR MA Corporation, which is a venture of China CNR Corporation Limited and CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., according to the board’s agenda.
The contract for 284 subway cars will include the construction of an assembly plant in Springfield, according to a person with knowledge of the contract. The MBTA said last year it expected to begin delivering Orange Line cars in the winter of 2018, and the Red Line cars in the fall of 2019.
The Globe piece has a number of new details, but nowhere does it credit the Herald for catching this train first.
Bad form, Globeniks. Bad form.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Changchun Railway Ventures, China CNR Corp., Harry Wu, Massachusetts General Hospital, MBTA, MGH, Orange Line, People's Republic of China, Red Line, Tom Cushman, Wellesley College | 
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October 20, 2014
Something interesting is happening in the Boston Globe’s editorial pages. The paper is doing a sort of media culpa regarding some high-profile – and highly debated – criminal convictions in the ’80s and ’90s. And it’s been uncharacteristically emphatic in its positions.
Begin with the redoubtable Harvey Silverglate’s Globe op-ed a week ago.
Justice system failed Bernard Baran
There should be consequences
BERNARD BARAN of Pittsfield died a free man on Sept. 1 at age 49. But for an act of God, he would likely have died in prison, forever deemed guilty of raping children at a day care center where he’d worked.
Convicted amid the national panic over supposed sexual abuse of preschool children, Baran fell victim to homophobia, hysteria, and arguable prosecutorial misconduct. While many now recognize these prosecutions as modern-day witch hunts, those responsible for his incarceration remain unapologetic and unpunished.
That was followed by this editorial in yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe.
When miscarriages of justice occur, prosecutors must answer for actions
TWENTY-NINE YEARS ago, a Berkshire County prosecutor named Daniel A. Ford made at least one awful decision: On the skimpiest 
evidence he charged a 19-year-old man with multiple counts of child rape. That may not be the worst of it; there are indications he may have played fast and loose with trial rules in order to get a conviction. Although Ford denies he did anything wrong, trial records suggest the defense attorney was unaware of significant exculpatory evidence held by the prosecution. In an atmosphere of homophobia and hysteria, the defendant, an openly gay teenager named Bernard F. Baran Jr., didn’t stand a chance. Convicted, he spent 21 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit.
In his op-ed, Silverglate “raised the possibility of removing Ford from his current job as a Superior Court judge, a position he has held since 1989.” The Globe editorial calls that “premature,” but says “Silverglate and Baran’s other supporters are right to seek a full, public inquiry into both the prosecution’s conduct and its decision to try the case in the first place.”
Further down Memory Lane, yesterday’s Globe also featured this op-ed by Lee Scheier, an investigative reporter working on a book about shaken-baby syndrome.
Martha Coakley, stop lauding bad science for self-promotion
AFTER COMING under attack in an political ad for not doing enough to protect children, Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate for governor, defended her record. In a large above-the-fold photograph published in the Globe Oct. 3, Coakley is seen standing next to Deborah Eappen, mother of Matthew Eappen, the baby whom Louise Woodward was charged with shaking to death in 1997.
Coakley, the prosecutor in that infamous trial, set up the photo op ostensibly to remind the public of her commitment to protecting children. If so, Coakley must think Massachusetts voters have short memories.
Because, Scheier asserts, “[t]he truth is that Martha Coakley’s deft misuse of science actually came very close to sending an innocent caretaker to prison for life.”
Who’s right here? Roll your own.
But one thing’s clear: Ellen Clegg, the Globe’s interim editorial page editor, has certainly added some juice to those pages.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bernard Baran, Boston Globe, Deborah Eappen, Ellen Clegg, Harvey Silverglate, Lee Scheier, Louise Woodward, Martha Coakley, shaken baby syndrome | Permalink
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October 18, 2014
Money and the People’s Republic get front-page headlines in today’s local dailies. Start with this colorful one in the Boston Herald.
Nice. The story inside:
Activists want T bid derailed
Human rights and labor activists are voicing outrage that the Patrick administration could soon award a staggering $1.3 billion subway contract to a rail enterprise owned by the repressive Communist Chinese government, saying the deal would be a “terrible disgrace.”
“If the left-leaning Massachusetts blue staters love to boycott things that break the wrong way on issues of rights, why does China get a pass on all of that?” said Tom Cushman, a human rights activist and professor at Wellesley College.
“If this were an entity that was known to be hostile toward transgendered people or gay people or who violated the rights of minorities, people would be up in arms over a contract like this. But (they) do all those things. They are hostile toward all those people, but China doesn’t register on the screen of the morally outraged.”
Well, it does at the railsy local tabloid.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, it’s an entirely different business on Page One.
MGH in talks for hospital in China
Massachusetts General Hospital is in early discussions with two partners to build a full-service hospital with 500 to 1,000 beds in China, a country that is struggling to meet growing demand from its 1.4 billion citizens for top-quality medical care.
Mass. General signed a “framework agreement’’ last week with a Chinese hospital that specializes in traditional medicine and a Chinese investment firm, allowing the three parties to exchange financial information and work on developing a definitive agreement to open a facility in an island city close to Hong Kong.
Mass. General executives called the talks preliminary and said they have not made a final decision about whether to participate in the project, but that they hope to do so by next summer.
So both these deals are still up in the air. Plenty of opportunity for the Chinese checkers to do their damnedest.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Changchun Railway Ventures, China CNR Corp., Harry Wu, Massachusetts General Hospital, MBTA, MGH, Orange Line, People's Republic of China, Red Line, Tom Cushman, Wellesley College | Permalink
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October 17, 2014
The Boston Herald is at its most Heraldish today, with a trio of Page One stories that feature drugs, crime, greed, and, well, TV.
For our money, the best of the bunch is this one:
No love lost between sibs
Con who killed parents sues bro for granny’s $$
A killer con — behind bars for cold-bloodedly murdering his parents for their insurance money more than 25 years ago — is back in court suing his brother over an inheritance from their grandmother, saying he has the dough coming to him.
“That money was supposed to be for me if I got out on parole,” William Duclos, 45, told the Herald in a jailhouse interview yesterday. “My brother was supposed to hold that money for me.”
Not surprisingly, the situation is a little more complicated than that. Check the feisty local tabloid for details.
Also not surprisingly – you won’t find them in the Boston Globe.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, HBO Go, Lena Dunham, Mike Dukakis, Peter Gelzinis, Robel Phillipos, William Duclos | Permalink
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October 16, 2014
Wynn Resorts – which won the casino bake-off with Mohegan Sun last month – looks to be quickly embedding itself in the local economy. The proposed Everett gambling hell – sorry, hall (tip o’ the pixel to Raymond Chandler) – ran this ad in today’s Boston Herald to promote the upcoming Wynn Resorts Vendor & Career Information Sessions.
Money quote:
Average salaries over $50,000? (Is Steve Wynn’s factored in?) $120 million per annum on goods and services? I’d take all of that with a shaker of salt, yeah.
Meanwhile, no such golden opportunities are available crosstown at the Boston Globe. But maybe the Globe set could find gainful employment at the new UniQlo opening tomorrow at the Northshore Mall. Glenn Howerton, Actor/Producer certainly did.
Hey, Globe readers: Write if you get work.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Finger Man, gambling hell, Glenn Howerton, Northshore Mall, Raymond Chandler, Steve Wynn, UniQlo, Wynn Everett, Wynn Resorts, Wynn Resorts Vendor & Career Information Sessions | Permalink
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October 13, 2014
Once again the Boston Herald has a case of the high-sterics in dealing with the Ebola we-don’t-know-what. Page One of today’s fraidy local tabloid:
Inside the Herald devotes three full pages to its Chicken Little act. Here’s a Whit(e)man’s Sampler of the alarums on the Herald homepage at post time.
Especially risible is the column by Adriana Cohen, who seems to be suggesting that America construct a Dome of Solitude to make the world go away.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, there is – as usual – a more measured approach. Page One of today’s edition:
Close-up:
One town, two different worlds, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adriana Cohen, Barack Obama, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dome of Solitude, Ebola, Whit(e)man's Sampler | Permalink
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October 10, 2014
There’s lots of interesting advertising material in today’s local dailies, starting with the Boston Globe’s Capital section. Usually the papers’s weekly political playground capitalizes on its cherce readership with a bundle of full-page ads, but in today’s edition what’s more interesting are the pieces about advertising.
First up: Noah Guiney’s scorecard on some of the latest New England campaign ads. Representative sample:
Charlie Baker, Martha Coakley, Seth Moulton, and Jeanne Shaheen also get the red-pen treatment.
Getting the graphic treatment are Political ads that aired most often (in two parts for legibility – sorry, no link).
Fun for the whole family.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it’s today’s ads themselves that are most noteworthy, starting with this one for heavy Lyfters.
That’s appeared before in the Herald, but not (to our knowledge) in the Globe.
Here’s another one that we haven’t seen in the stately local broadsheet.
Actually, we haven’t seen this ad in the Herald either before today. Anyway, here’s the Steppingstone website, and here’s their media page. Roll your own.
By far the most noteworthy ad in today’s Herald is this:
Rest in peace, Firefighter Michael Ryan Kennedy.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Capital, Charlie Baker, Coalition to Protect Mass. Jobs, Commonwealth Future PAC, Evan Falchuk, Jeanne Shaheen, Karyn Polito, Lyft, Martha Coakley, Mass. Democratic State Committee, Massachusetts Teachers Association PAC, Michael Ryan Kennedy, No on Question 2, Noah Guiney, Richard Tisei, Seth Moulton, Steppingstone Foundation, Uber | Permalink
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October 9, 2014
From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk
Page One of today’s Boston Herald is downright ebollient.
The Page 6 story, predictably, is no less hyperventilating.
Airports step up checks for Ebola
But victims may lie, experts warn
Homeland Security agents will be screening passengers for higher temperatures at five major U.S. airports, but not at Logan, in a stepped up response to the Ebola epidemic that one expert warns won’t stop infected travelers like the man who died in Dallas yesterday from sneaking into the country.
The first Ebola patient to die in the U.S., Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian man, had come to Dallas in late September but did not display obvious signs of having the virus.
“Some people will have a disincentive to be perfectly honest about their prior exposure to the virus because they want to get into the U.S. for many reasons, but one might be that they are seeking treatment here and trying to stay alive,” said Andrew Price-Smith, adviser to the National Intelligence Council for Biodefense.
Talk about your mixed-up messages. (Note: That’s Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed in the U.S with Ebola, on the right. He died yesterday.)
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Page One is – no surprise – more measured: The paper teases the story below the fold.
Inside, the Globe picks up coverage from the New York Times.
More light, less heat, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Price-Smith, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Ebola, ebollient, Homeland Security, Liberia, Logan International Airport, National Intelligence Council for Biodefense, New York Times, Thomas Eric Duncan | Permalink
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October 6, 2014
Call it the Watermelon Summit.
The editorial cartoon rumpus at the Boston Herald has arrived at its inevitable destination: A sitdown between Herald editors and the local chapter of the NAACP.
From Sunday’s edition of the flavory local tabloid.
Herald vows to work with Boston NAACP
Curry: Obama cartoon ‘perpetuates stereotype’
The Boston Herald will work with the Boston chapter of the NAACP to address the issues raised by the publication of an editorial page cartoon last week.
The cartoon, focusing on security breaches at the White House, depicted President Obama brushing his teeth as an intruder suggested he try watermelon-flavored toothpaste. Cartoonist Jerry Holbert said he intended no racial overtones and apologized as did the newspaper.
The NAACP yesterday called the Herald apologies “inadequate” and said the publication of the cartoon on the paper’s opinion page “reopened the wounds of race” in Boston. It requested a series of remedies including a community meeting to discuss the editorial page cartoon.
That would be Boston NAACP president Michael Curry in the subhead, who got this response from a Herald statement:
”The Herald has made it clear that this editorial page cartoon was unacceptable in its insensitivity and racial overtones . . . We look forward to continuing our partnership with the NAACP and meeting with them to address the concerns that arose as a result.”
But crosstown at the Boston Globe, the Herald seemed to have a very different message for the NAACP.
Curry said that Herald executives told him they were ready to hear from the black community but had not yet committed to pursuing any action beyond a meeting.
“They said to me that they’re willing to do whatever and they’re expecting to hear from the community at this forum,” he said. “I think what’s important here is they’ve said no to nothing at this point.”
Then again, they’ve also said yes to nothing, yes?
Yes.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Barack Obama, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston magazine, Boston NAACP, Dan Kennedy, Fence-ghazi, FishbowlDC, GoComics.com, Judy Gregory, Kurte Pellerin, Michael Curry, Rachelle Cohen, Rosie Perez, The View, watermelon flavored toothpaste, Watermelon Man Summit, White House intruder, Whoopi Goldberg | Permalink
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October 5, 2014
Sometimes, the knockoff is superior to the original. At least that seems to be the case in memorializing local fashion blogger Karina Moreira, who died last week at the tragically young age of 16.
From Friday’s Boston Herald Inside Track:
Getting there first: Nice.
From Saturday’s Boston Globe:
Fashion blogger Karina Moreira, 16, dies after battle with cancer
Karina Moreira, 16, whose blog “chic by karina” caught the attention of supermodel Gisele Bundchen, Taylor Swift, and thousands of followers on social media, died Thursday evening, according to her mother Daniela Xavier.
“I am so proud of [Karina],” she said. “With everything that she went through, she still had hope and faith in God. She never gave up or complained.”
Getting Karina’s family: Nicer.
Now say thanks to the Herald, Globeniks.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Alexa McMahon, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, chic by karina, Daniela Xavier, fashion blogger, Gayle Fee, Inside Track, Karina Moreira, Track Gal | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 