September 3, 2013
This is really disgraceful: For the fourth straight day the Boston Herald has ignored the death of Seamus Heaney, a major literary and local figure who graced Harvard University with his presence for many years.
Here’s who aced out the great Irish poet today:
We know what you’re thinking: How long will the hardflogging staff keep this up?
Tell you what: Assume the Herald has maintained its misguided ways until we tell you otherwise.
UPDATE: Tuesday’s Boston Globe even featured a Names item about Heaney’s funeral.
Poet Seamus Heaney laid to rest in Dublin
DUBLIN — Ireland mourned the loss of its Nobel laureate poet, Seamus Heaney, with equal measures of poetry and pain Monday in a funeral full of grace notes and a final message from the great man himself: Don’t be afraid.
Among those packing the pews of Dublin’s Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart were government leaders from both parts of Ireland, poets and novelists, Bono and The Edge from rock band U2, and former Lebanese hostage Brian Keenan.
Ireland’s foremost uilleann piper, Liam O’Flynn, played a wailing lament before family members and friends offered a string of readings from the Bible and their own often-lyrical remembrances of the country’s most celebrated writer of the late 20th century. The 90-minute service ended with a cellist’s rendition of the childhood bedtime classic ‘‘Brahms’s Lullaby.’’
Sleep the Big Sleep, Seamus.
And sleep fitfully, Heraldniks.
3 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: Bono, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Brahms's Lullaby, Harvard University, Liam O'Flynn, Names, Seamus Heaney, Tommy Morrison, U2 | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
September 2, 2013
The Boston Sunday Globe featured an unusually graphic – and lengthy – editorial about the need to upgrade Boston Harbor.
The particulars:
Dredge Boston Harbor
Advent of much larger cargo vessels means city’s venerable port will have to adapt
THREE TIMES a week, large container ships dock at South Boston’s Conley Terminal. Enormous cranes and some 1,000 workers work in tandem to offload the cargo — mostly alcoholic beverages, frozen seafood, and furniture — from Asia and across the Atlantic. In about 30 minutes, the goods are loaded onto trucks headed for points throughout New England. The ships are then reloaded — this time, with animal skins, paper, scrap metal, and more frozen seafood — before continuing on to their next port of call. The process is at once complex and orderly.
Yet the shipping industry is undergoing dramatic changes amid relentless pressure to transport more cargo faster; today in Boston, it takes half as long to unload a cargo container from a ship and discharge it via truck as it did just eight years ago. But how long Boston’s port will remain competitive amid even farther-reaching changes is an open question.
There are lots of other fun facts to know and tell in the piece.
Check ’em out.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Harbor, dredge Boston Harbor, editorial, shipping industry | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
September 1, 2013
The great Seamus Heaney, considered by Robert Lowell the finest Irish poet since William Butler Yeats, died this week at age 74.
The Boston Globe gave him a front-page below the fold appreciation by Kevin Cullen . . .
. . . and a major obituary by Joseph P. Kahn.
Not to mention this Globe ave-atque-editorial:
(Meanwhile, the Globe’s still-kissin’-cousin New York Times ran a Margalit Fox above-the-fold obit, along with this appraisal by Michiko Kakutani.)
The Boston Herald?
Ran nothing.
The hard reading staff will check out the Sunday Herald, but we’re cautiously pessimistic.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: ave-atque-editorial, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Joseph P. Kahn, Kevin Culen, Margalit Fox, Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, Seamus Heaney | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 30, 2013
As the hardreading staff noted recently, the local dailies’ foray into Internet radio was bound to create some drama and conflict, even though Boston Herald Radio does talk (mostly to themselves) and RadioBDC does music. I wrote last month: “Be interesting to see if some news/talk shows start turning up on the indie rockstream.”
Lo and behold, from today’s Boston Globe:
The new show is Edging the Xtreme, described this way on its home page:
Edging The Xtreme with Dan Egan focuses on the hip and happenings of the extreme sports world, with exclusive interviews with regional, national and international athletes in the world of skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, surfing and so much more.
Be interesting to see how much more talk RadioBDC will start offering, yes?
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Dan Egan, Edging the Xtreme, RadioBDC | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 29, 2013
This is what the Boston Herald lives for.
Our feisty local tabloid devotes nearly four full pages to the casino-industrial complex today.
Corruption! Rampant patronage! Zero accountability!
For the Herald, this deal is the grift that keeps on giving.
Crosstown, by contrast, the Boston Globe has this nothingburger of a story in today’s Metro section:
Aside from some mild finger-wagging by columnist Adrian Walker over Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s ram-rodding this deal through, our stately local broadsheet has had nary a discouraging word about the proposed billion-dollar gambling hell – sorry, hall.
C’mon, Globeniks – get on this stick. Where’s that righteous indignation about gambling? Or even some of your trademark tsk-tsking?
You gonna let the Herald have all the fun?
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adrian Walker, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, casino, Revere, Suffolk Downs, Tom Menino | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 28, 2013
The Boston Herald and the Boston Globe do casino-half-full/casino-half-empty in today’s editions.
The Globe:
The story itself gives a more detailed set of numbers.
A Suffolk Downs casino would pay Boston at least $32 million annually — and potentially far more — while guaranteeing at least 4,000 permanent jobs and providing East Boston an upfront payment of $33.4 million, under an agreement signed Tuesday with Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
The deal includes provisions that would substantially increase the annual payment to the city if the casino is highly profitable. Under those provisions, the deal could be worth $52 million for Boston annually, based on projections from a city consultant that the resort would gross $1 billion per year in gambling revenue.
Crosstown, those eternally optimistic Heraldniks go for the big score:
You need to go down to this graphic to get the more modest number.
Then again, overstatement is pretty much the Herald’s business these days.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, casino, East Boston, Suffolk Downs, Tom Menino | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 27, 2013
It’s clear by now that former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Elsewhere) will do pretty much anything to grab a piece of the media spotlight.
Today it’s this story in the Boston Herald:
Scott Brown Twitter pic causes a stir
It was a political twitter tornado.
When Scott Brown posted a picture of himself with a beaming U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) yesterday, the social media site lit up — especially after he followed it up with a one-word addendum: “Maybe.”
Maybe a GOP ticket in 2016?
Yes, and maybe the hardreading staff will win the Nobel Peace Prize for Two-Daily Town.
The best part of the Herald piece is the Scott Brown Shuffle when he was asked what he meant by “Maybe.”
“In the form of an update, as i was rushing to get a plane I responded — maybe to a charitable appearance request. That’s what I get 4 rushing,” Brown [tweeted].
Conclusive proof the Scott Brown truly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Of course Brown has had Twitter mishaps before, the most memorable being his midnight rambling last January.
It is said that the act of texting (or, by extension, tweeting) automatically removes 10 I.Q. points. Those are points Scott Brown can ill afford to lose.
The Boston Globe, for its part, was smart enough to ignore the story altogether.
Bqhatevwr.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, bqhatevwr, Huffington Post, Marco Rubio, Scott Brown, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 27, 2013
From our stately local broadsheet’s The Hive on Monday:
This ring guarantees easy access to the T
Sick of fishing through your purse or flashing your wallet every time you ride the MBTA? A Kickstarter project, Sesame Ring, is offering stylish RFID rings that you can simply tap against CharlieCard readers as you sail through the crowds.
“Having missed the train many times while fishing for our CharlieCards, we looked for a solution in wearable technology. After months of hard work, we created the 3D-printed Sesame Ring, supported by the MBTA,” the project page states. “Now, you can walk right up to the gantry, use scientifically approved magic, and scoot on through!”
At first glance, the Globe is sucking hind teat here.
From the Googletron:
But look closer and you see that Globe kissin’ cousin boston.com had the story four days ago – before the other news outlets.
(Except for Boston Magazine’s Boston Daily blog. But neither outlet credits the other, so tie goes to boston.com.)
Two-Daily Town Assignment Desk: Let’s see if the Boston Herald, routinely a lively index to the Globe, picks up this story in the next few days.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Daily, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston magazine, Googletron, lively index to the Globe, MBTA, Sesame Ring, stately local broadsheet, The Hive | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 26, 2013
From the Boston Sunday Globe’s front page:
The Globe proceeded to devote another page-and-a-half to tracking Dookhan defendants freed by the crime lab debacle.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s Boston Herald did what the feisty local tabloid always does: Inflate the personal into the political.
That’s certainly newsworthy in its own right, but what the Herald will never admit is that the Globe story will be its assignment desk all this week.
That’s the Two-Daily Town two-step in a nutshell.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Annie Dookhan, assignment desk, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Two-Daily Town, Two-Daily Town two-step | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 26, 2013
Vin Scully, the legendary 85-year-old broadcaster who has called Los Angeles Dodgers games for lo, these last 64 years, has just re-upped for 2014, and the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy paid tribute to him in Sunday’s edition.
Vin Scully simply the best broadcaster of all time
Ted Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Russell, Leonardo Da Vinci, Jim Brown, Winston Churchill, Bobby Orr, Yo-Yo Ma, Muhammad Ali . . .
And Vin Scully.
The best who ever lived.
On Friday, the Dodgers announced that Scully will be back as team broadcaster for his 65th year in 2014. A humbled Scully, now 85, gracefully participated in a press conference, telling the assembled media that he wished the Dodgers had simply released the news with a single line in the evening’s game notes.
Classic Scully.
The Sunday Boston Herald had nothing.
Classic Herald.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: best who ever lived, Bill Russell, Bobby Orr, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dan Shaughnessy, Jim Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Los Angeles Dodgers, Ted Williams, Vin Scully, Winston Churchill | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 