The hardreading staff knows the definition of news is changing (see virtually any David Carr column in the New York Times), but only in the Boston Herald can its own columnist’s humping his cut ‘n’ paste books be considered worthy of space in the newshole.
From today’s flacky local tabloid.
To the best of our knowledge Howie Carr is no relation to David Carr (much to the latter’s relief, we’d guess). Even so, Howie’s just bustin’ his buttons, isn’t he?
With medical marijuana set to debut in Massachusetts several months from now, there’s been a lot of coverage about the botched rollout of dispensary licenses in the Bay State. Parallel to that, there’s also a minor rumpus unfolding over TV spots for New York-based Medical Cannabis Network and its website MarijuanaDoctors.com.
The first ones who stand to make a windfall off medical marijuana aren’t necessarily the dispensaries or doctors; they might just be the advertisers and the media that air their campaigns.
In April, months before the first dispensaries are scheduled to open in Massachusetts this summer, what’s expected to be the Northeast’s first marijuana-related commercial is due to air on major networks, opening the floodgates to what could turn out to be big business for both the companies that create the commercials and the ones that run them.
“I would imagine medical marijuana sales will probably reach the hundreds of millions of dollars, and advertising is usually some percentage of gross revenue, so it could be a very big potential revenue source,” said Bruce Mittman, president of Mittcom, a local advertising agency.
New York-based Medical Cannabis Network has booked airtime through Comcast Spotlight to advertise marijuanadoctors.com, which pairs patients with doctors in their area who will evaluate whether marijuana should be used for their serious illness or chronic pain, according to founder Jason Draizin.
The first medical marijuana commercial slated to run on television in Massachusetts next month has vaporized — at least when it comes to airing through Comcast.
The ad failed to make its debut this past week in New Jersey because Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast, rejected the ad as unsuitable.
“All commercials are subject to final review by Comcast Spotlight prior to airing and during that process it was determined that the spot did not meet our guidelines,” Comcast spokesman Steven Restivo said yesterday.
The offending TV spot:
According to MarijuanaDoctors.com spokeswoman Janet Falk, “MarijuanaDoctors.com has been approached directly by several TV stations and cable networks regarding advertising in Massachusetts.”
Like Halley’s Comet, a correction in in the Boston Herald is something to both marvel at and celebrate.
So it is with the note that appears at the top of page 2 in today’s Herald.
That would be this page 12 yesterday, which reported the murder of Brockton four-year-old Chauncey Cohen.
And specifically this caption, which calls the victim’s father by the alleged killer’s name.
Ouch.
The hardreading staff has nothing but sympathy for the Heraldniks here, since this kind of error is the monster under every journalist’s bed. Good for the Herald for not burying its mistake, but correcting it with the prominence it deserves.
And the stately local broadsheet returned the favor with this piece posted to its (New! Metered!!) website about 20 minutes ago.
Car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. will raise hourly wages
Hikes minimum rate for his employees; announces decision as Obama visits area
Car dealer Ernie Boch Jr. had a message for President Obama to read when he arrived in Boston on Wednesday. Boch isn’t waiting for the government to raise the minimum wage.
“President Obama: I did it!” he wrote in a signed, full-page ad that appeared in Wednesday’s Boston Globe. Boch, a Republican who has supported political candidates from both parties, said he will raise the pay of his minimum wage workers to $10.10 on April 1.
“I believe that, even above minimum wage, it’s extremely difficult to make a living, especially with a family and expenses,” Boch said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m doing what I think is the right thing, which is what Obama is proposing. I’m doing my part.”
Boch’s also doing his part to keep this a Two-Daily Town: He ran the same ad in the Boston Herald.
Actually, not exactly the same ad. Notice the “Advertisement . . . Advertisement . . . Advertisement” at the top of the Herald ad?
Not there in the Globe version.
Who’da thunk the feisty local tabloid would ever be more transparent than the Globe?
As the hardreading staff noted last week, CommonWealth Magazine broke this story about Boston Mayor Marty Walsh reassessing yet another sweetheart deal for the Red Sox and Fenway Park.
Walsh reviewing Red Sox deal
Agreement makes permanent Van Ness Street arrangement
THE ADMINISTRATION OF Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said it is reviewing an agreement the city struck with the Boston Red Sox in October that formalized a long-standing arrangement allowing the club to close off Van Ness Street during Fenway Park events.
The agreement, signed by Red Sox president Larry Lucchino and Mayor Thomas Menino’s police and transportation commissioners, makes permanent what appears to have been an informal arrangement between the club and the city allowing the team to close off the section of Van Ness next to Fenway during games. The Red Sox typically used part of the street for employee parking, paying no fee to the city to do so.
We also noted that the story was Xerox-reported by numerous other news outlets – including the Boston Herald and the Associated Press – without crediting CommonWealth.
What we failed to note was this further rip-off by the Herald.
Reporter Colman Herman wrote this in his piece: “No other single private entity is allowed to close off a street in Boston on a regular basis.”
In Richard Weir’s Herald report, that sentence is placed in the mouth of Gregory Sullivan, “the former state former [sic] inspector general . . . [who] dismisses the Sox’ arguments as ‘irrelevant and a smokescreen.'”
“This is another precious gem dropped into the Red Sox basket at the expense of the taxpayers,” Sullivan, the research director of the Pioneer Institute, said of the Van Ness Street contract. “It’s a public street owned by the city of Boston. And no private party should have exclusive rights to use it in this way without compensating the city. Period. … No other single private entity is allowed to close off a street in Boston on a regular basis.” [Emphasis added]
We have it on good authority that Sullivan contends he never said that last part.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, Mrs. John Henry (a.k.a. Linda Pizutti) is heading up the John-Henry-owned Boston Globe’s GRANT program, which purports to provide financial assistance to local community programs through Globe-subscriber contributions.
That’s all well and good, but Saturday’s Globe seemed to cross the line with this item in its Business section.
Really, Globeniks: You wanna start using your newshole as a marketing tool?
Yesterday, CommonWealth Magazine broke this story on its website:
Walsh reviewing Red Sox deal
Agreement makes permanent Van Ness Street arrangement
THE ADMINISTRATION OF Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said it is reviewing an agreement the city struck with the Boston Red Sox in October that formalized a long-standing arrangement allowing the club to close off Van Ness Street during Fenway Park events.
The agreement, signed by Red Sox president Larry Lucchino and Mayor Thomas Menino’s police and transportation commissioners, makes permanent what appears to have been an informal arrangement between the club and the city allowing the team to close off the section of Van Ness next to Fenway during games. The Red Sox typically used part of the street for employee parking, paying no fee to the city to do so.
“We are currently reviewing the agreement, and compensation is one of the issues that we will consider during this review,” said Walsh spokeswoman Kate Norton.
The Walsh administration said yesterday it is examining two 2013 contracts the city inked with the Red Sox granting the team exclusive rights to public streets — arrangements made in the final months of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s tenure.
“We are currently reviewing the agreement, and compensation is one of the issues that we will consider during this review,” Kate Norton, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said of a little-known “public safety order” city officials signed in October giving the Red Sox permission to seal off Van Ness Street during game days and other major events at Fenway.
Nowhere in the piece is CommonWealth given credit.
Ditto for these other news organizations, which picked up the story from the Associated Press. (Before anyone gets all shirty about it, news outlets add info to AP reports all the time. Just not in this case.)
The Boston Globe, meanwhile, played catch-up, posting a piece to its website at 6 am.
As the hardreading staff has repeatedly noted, the Boston Herald has been on the tragically inept Massachusetts Department of Children and Families like Brown on Williamson.
But it’s never official until the feisty local tabloid salutes itself.
Consider it official. From today’s Herald:
Special bonus from the firsty local tabloid: this editorial (“Lying on the record”), which – hold on to your hat! – actually quotes the Boston Globe. Twice.
(There’s also this report on yesterday’s lost cover teen being found unharmed, and a thoroughly predictable Michael Graham column.)
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 