Both Sunday dailies have reports on the Boston taxicab industry, and the difference between them tells you all you need to know about the two news organizations.
And that’s just the first of three parts.
Once again, the Herald is a lively index to the Globe.
Don’t get the hardreading staff wrong: We yield to no man in our appreciation of the feisty local tabloid. Hell, we’re one of its 17 home subscribers.
But it’s always good to remember what’s what with the Boston dailies.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Cab Association, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, SideCar, Spotlight Team, taxicab industry, Tickengo, Uber | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
From our Bitter Disappointment desk
For months the Boston Herald has been the hardreading staff’s Zumba Hooker Headquarters.
But no more.
When Alexis Wright, the pride of Maine’s hooker community, pled guilty to 20 counts of prostitution and etc. on Friday, it was only the Boston Globe that recorded it.
Maine Zumba instructor pleads guilty to prostitution
PORTLAND, Maine — A dance instructor accused of using her Zumba fitness studio as a front for prostitution pleaded guilty Friday to 20 counts in a scandal that captivated a quiet seaside town.
The agreement that followed a second day of plea negotiations on Friday spares Alexis Wright from the prospect of a high-profile trial featuring sex videos, exhibitionism, and pornography. Prosecutors will recommend a jail sentence of 10 months when she is sentenced on May 31.
Wright quietly answered ‘‘guilty’’ 20 times when the judge read the counts, which include engaging in prostitution, promotion of prostitution, conspiracy, tax evasion, and theft by deception.
‘‘We’re very satisfied with it. It’s an appropriate outcome, given the gravity of her actions,’’ Assistant Attorney General Darcy Mitchell said after the brief court hearing.
But the hardbreathing staff is not at all satisfied with it, since Saturday’s Boston Herald featured exactly nothing about the “appropriate outcome.”
Sure, our feisty local tabloid played catch-up with this Associated Press report on its website, but really, Heraldniks:
Beaten by the Globe on the Zumba Hooker beat?
Shame on you.
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From our Compare ‘n’ Contrast desk
The front pages of today’s local dailies are perfect representations of where they stand in relation to one another – and their readers.
That tells you all you need to know about our feisty local tabloid. Long may it rain . . . on all our parades.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, feisty local tabloid, Tom Menino | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
Our feisty local tabloid plays Great Mentioner today in handicapping the potential field for next Boston mayor.
City power players: Our top picks
The race for mayor 2013 — the first without an incumbent in three decades — likely will draw a scrum of hopefuls from City Hall to the State House and beyond. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. Here’s ours:
For the cheaters-deprived:
Inside the hall
City Councilor John R. Connolly
City Councilor Robert Consalvo
City Councilor Tito H. Jackson
City Councilor Michael P. Ross
City Councilor Felix G. Arroyo
City Councilor Charles Yancey
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley
City Council President Stephen J. Murphy
Outside the hall
State Rep. Martin J. Walsh
State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez
State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley
Outside the box
U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch
Former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II
Businessman/Philanthropist Jack Connors
Suffolk Construction CEO John F. Fish
In other words, everybody.
Except Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan.
Who at least gets a nod in today’s Boston Globe:
Through a spokesman, Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan said he has no plans to run for mayor.
Yes, and the hardworking staff has no plans for dinner tonight.
The thing is, Grogan’s been waiting in the mayoral wings for about a decade. It’s hard to believe he’ll pass up this golden opportunity to grab the gold ring.
Time will tell, as the bigfoot journalists say.
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As you would expect, both Boston dailies today report on yesterday’s Supreme Court DOMA hoedown.
A boost for gay marriage: Justices question US law
WASHINGTON — Concluding two days of intense debate, the Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it could give a boost to same-sex marriage by striking down the federal law that denies legally married gay spouses a wide range of benefits offered to other couples.
As the court wrapped up its remarkable arguments over gay marriage in America, a majority of the justices indicated they will invalidate part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act — if they can get past procedural problems similar to those that appeared to mark Tuesday’s case over California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Since the federal law was enacted in 1996, nine states and the District of Columbia have made it legal for gays and lesbians to marry. Same-sex unions also were legal in California for nearly five months in 2008 before the Proposition 8 ban.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the decisive vote in close cases, joined the four more-liberal justices in raising questions Wednesday about a provision that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law.
Most justices voice skepticism on marriage act
WASHINGTON — A majority of Supreme Court justices expressed deep skepticism Wednesday about a federal law denying benefits to legally wed gay and lesbian couples, conveying after two days of historic testimony on the institution of marriage a sense that they would declare the law unconstitutional.
During oral arguments over a challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ticked off some of the 1,100 federal benefits the law denies to gay couples who have been legally married in Massachusetts and eight other states: They are not guaranteed family medical leaves, cannot collect spousal Social Security benefits, and cannot file joint federal tax returns and receive a marital deduction.
“With that set of attributes, one might well ask, what kind of marriage is this?” said Ginsburg, interrupting an attorney who argued the law does not violate states’ rights.
As a result of the law’s regulations, Ginsburg added, the nation is left with two classes of marriage: “Full marriage and this sort of skim-milk marriage,” she said, drawing laughter from the packed courtroom.
Same story, different details. What does distinguish the two papers, though, is where they turn for sidebar material.
Excerpts: ‘Sea of Change’
‘There has been a sea change’
On why President Obama is still enforcing the law if he believes it is unconstitutional (Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.):
ROBERTS: If [President Obama] has made a determination that executing the law by enforcing the terms is unconstitutional, I don’t see why he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions and execute not only the statute, but do it consistent with his view of the Constitution, rather than saying, “Oh, we’ll wait till the Supreme Court tells us we have no choice.’’
On the question of whether the definition of marriage should be a federal matter (Justice Anthony Kennedy and Paul Clement, the lawyer representing the House Republican leadership in defending the law):
KENNEDY: You are at, at real risk of running in conflict with what has always been thought to be the essence of the state police power, which is to regulate marriage, divorce, custody.
CLEMENT: First of all, the very fact that there are 1,100 provisions of federal law that define the terms ‘‘marriage’’ and ‘‘spouse’’ goes a long way to showing that federal law has not just stayed completely out of these issues. It’s gotten involved in them in a variety of contexts where there is an independent federal power that supported that.
And etc.
Herald:
And there’s more where those came from – Beyoncé, Ben Affleck, Joe Kennedy 3.0, and etc.
Check it out for yourself.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthony Kennedy, Ben Affleck, Beyoncé, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, DOMA, Joe Kennedy 3.0, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
So Boston Mayor Tom Menino will not run for a sixth term.
So the hardbetting staff owes $50 to wagerful reader Michael Pahre’s favorite charity.
So what.
The important thing is: What happens now.
Boston Globe website at 2 am:
Boston Herald website at 2 am:
You tell us: Who’s working this story harder?
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
We have a rare tag-team effort today by the local dailies, starting with the lead piece in the Boston Globe:
Helpful Globe graphic:
Even more helpful Boston Herald graphic:
Hey – someone hand me that gold watch there, wouldja?
Originally posted at Campaign Outsider for reasons unclear even to us.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Big Apple Circus, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Campaign Outsider, sixth term, Tom Menino, UNH Survey Center | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
The only thing the local dailies’ reviews of Spring Breakers have in common is the publicity photo they feature:
Beyond that, they’re talking about two completely different movies.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe:
‘Spring Breakers’ is mesmerizing
I derive no small pleasure from the thought of America’s youth flocking to see “Spring Breakers” expecting — well, what you’d expect a film called “Spring Breakers” to be — and finding instead a savage assault on every empty thought they hold dear.
At first glimpse, the movie is frat-comedy business as usual: images of half-clad college kids reveling in slow motion on the beaches of St. Petersburg, Fla. But the shots are held too long and the faces are dull-eyed and grotesque; the beer tubes and bong hits and naked breasts shade from bacchanalian to robotic. We seem to have left MTV’s spring break and entered David Lynch’s.
Actually, this universe belongs to Harmony Korine, the brat provocateur whose previous movies — including 1995’s “Kids” (which he only wrote but everyone gives him credit for anyway), 1997’s “Gummo,” and 2009’s “Trash Humpers” — have enraged proper-thinking audiences and critics while building a small, devoted base of cult followers. With the nominally mainstream “Spring Breakers,” count me in. Korine wants to give us a portrait of our nation’s children — the girls, especially — as beautifully depraved sharks, pleasure-seeking killers oblivious to the comedy and horror of their existence. And damned if he doesn’t pull it off, or come close enough.
James Verniere, Boston Herald.
‘Spring Breakers’ doesn’t fulfill hip entertainment promise
If you can imagine a raunchy, MTV beer commercial, featuring music by Skrillex, bikini-clad, coke-addled Girls Gone Wild and art-movie lighting and editing effects, you have some idea of what to expect from Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers.” Is it trash? Or is it hip and entertaining trash?
It’s mostly the former. Because I was bored much of the time by repetitious dialogue, repeated scenes stretching already cellophane-thin material and flagrantly shallow characters, I can hardly claim to have been entertained. Hip? Well, I guess if watching pretty young veterans of the Disney Channel parade around in neon-colored bikinis and misbehave is your idea of hip, go for it, dude.
Burr gave the flick 3 1/2 stars. Verniere gave it a C-.
Go figure.
If you want a tiebreaker, you could check out this, but forewarned is forearmed – the headline/subhead is:
Startling ‘Spring Breakers’ Film Explores Sexual Coercion Turned On Its Head
Harmony Korine’s new film captures the complexities of gender, violence, and the sex-drenched scene known as spring break
Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: AlterNet, Ashley Benson, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Harmony Korine, James Verniere, Selena Gomez, Spring Breakers, Ty Burr, Vanessa Hudgens | Permalink
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So Gov. Deval Patrick made a joke yesterday about running for a third term and wouldn’t you know some people took him seriously and faster than you can say tweet tweet it was out there on the social media wire.
From today’s Boston Globe:
Patrick trips online firestorm with reelection joke
For a few minutes early Wednesday afternoon, the Massa chusetts political world was in flames.
Governor Deval Patrick’s attempt at humor during an appear ance at the University of Massachusetts Boston went viral, leading many to believe that he would seek a third term. That would have been news, indeed, since Patrick has long professed to be satisfied with two terms.
And, while there is no law prohibiting a third consecutive term, there is no modern precedent.
“#Breaking: @MassGovernor announces he’s running for a third term” New England Cable News network tweeted at 1:10 p.m. to its more than 19,000 followers.
That ignited a firestorm of retweets, online exclamations of disbelief, and panicked phone calls by news organizations looking to catch up on a story that would dramatically remake the state’s political landscape.
It turned out to be a false alarm, but what the Globe piece fails to mention is that one of its own was among the retweeters. It was left to our feisty local tabloid to reveal the full story.
From today’s Boston Herald:
NECN tweets from the hip
A red-faced NECN chalked its social media gaffe up to “human error” yesterday after firing off a mistaken tweet declaring Gov. Deval Patrick was running for a third term — a blunder experts say newspeople can avoid by thinking before they tweet.
The cyber slip spread like wildfire to Washington, D.C., where it was retweeted by a Boston Globe reporter, and the governor’s press office was forced to field a barrage of calls. Social media experts say the blame lies with shoddy journalism.
“Twitter’s not dangerous — the people who use it can be,” said Al Tompkins of the journalism think tank the Poynter Institute.
Added “Twitter for Dummies” lead author Laura Fitton: “It doesn’t matter where that person published it. People tend to blame the tool. People will blame Twitter, but that’s just bad journalism.”
Ouch.
Here’s the twitstream:
A spokeswoman for our stately local broadsheet told the Herald’s Jessica Heslam that reporter Matt Viser followed the newspaper’s social media policy. “He retweeted a trusted source, NECN,” she said,”and the second NECN said it made a mistake, Matt retweeted that. All of this took place within a minute.”
Hey – maybe that’s why the Globe didn’t report it today. It happened too fast.
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
It’s a rare day – and therefore a noteworthy one – when the Boston Herald devotes more resources to a big story than the Boston Globe does.
Welcome to today’s edition of our feisty local tabloid gone global. Note the dateline on Margery Eagan’s column:
Pope Francis fever catches on in Rome
ROME — The Roman Catholic Church has been losing the faithful in Italy and much of Europe for decades. Pope Francis has clearly revived interest, if only until his novelty wears off.
Yesterday, for the third time in a week, an estimated 150,000 packed St. Peter’s Square. Police were keeping order in subway stations en route to the Vatican as crowds tried to push onto nearly full trains. Streets all around the Vatican were closed to traffic. But they were filled with what looked like thousands more spectators who showed up too late to fit into the square — meaning they didn’t get here by 7:30 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. Mass.
These thousands watched on at least a dozen Jumbotrons as Pope Francis, just before his inaugural Mass, rode about the square not in the bulletproof glass popemobile, but, unusually, in an open-air model. It allowed him to get on and off and kiss a baby and the forehead of a man who appeared disabled and smiled up at Francis’ face.
Today’s Herald also features a thumbsucker on Sean O’Malley’s elevated status after his waltz with the Great Mentioner at the Vatican conclave.
Observers see O’Malley as papal adviser
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley will return to Boston this week a more influential figure than when he left for the papal conclave late last month — with international name recognition, and possibly the prospect of a role in Rome as Pope Francis aligns his inner circle, religious experts said.
“My sense is that Sean O’Malley is happy in Boston and would not be happy at the Vatican. On the other hand, he is a close friend of Pope Francis. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a role for Cardinal O’Malley,” said Thomas Groome, a theology professor at Boston College. “He’ll have a more enhanced role in advising and leadership than he did under Benedict. He certainly is coming home with an enhanced reputation.”
National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen Jr., whose article on O’Malley prior to the conclave helped elevate the Boston archbishop’s profile, said O’Malley has been rumored to take over as leader of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which manages the rules governing priests and nuns.
Meanwhile, crosstown at the Globe, today’s edition included only this on the pontiff front:
At inaugural, Pope Francis vows to serve poor
Urges those in power to protect world
By Elisabetta Povoledo, Rachel Donadio and Alan Cowell | NEW YORK TIMES MARCH 20, 2013
VATICAN CITY — At the formal start of his papacy, Pope Francis offered a passionate pledge Tuesday to serve ‘‘the poorest, the weakest, the least important,’’ striking the same tones of humility that have marked the days since he was elected last week.
On a raised and canopied throne on a platform looking out from St. Peter’s Basilica to the piazza in front of it, the pope enjoined those in temporal power to protect the world and ‘‘not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world.’’
“Today, too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others,’’ he added to frequent applause from some among the tens of thousands of people cramming the square and the broad avenue leading to it from the River Tiber. The Vatican estimated the number at 150,000 to 200,000.
A story plucked from the New York Times wire service? Kinda pales in comparison with the Herald, eh?
It’s possible-to-likely the paper is splitting the cost of Eagan’s Roman gig with WGBH (where she co-hosts a radio show with Jm Braude), since she’s also reported on the papal festivities for 89.7 FM.
Either way, it’s the Herald that’s the papal tiger on this story.
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 