Three things we know for sure in this world:
• Jacoby Ellsbury has departed the Olde Towne Team
• Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy still has his hair
• The Boston Herald will always operate at a disadvantage
Exhibit Umpteen, from today’s Globe sports section:
The feisty local tabloid?
Whiffed.
So the hardreading staff just tweeted this at the erstwhile Sox centerfielder:
We’ll keep you posted.
2 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: @JacobyEllsbury, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, Dan Shaughnessy, Jacoby Ellsbury, Olde Towne Team | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
Our selfie-obsessed local tabloid is back at it again today, as if yesterday’s examination of Barack Obama’s shutterbug diplomacy at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service wasn’t enough.
Today’s Page One:
From there readers got the usual left-right punches from Margery Eagan and Howie Carr, along with a thumbnail sketch of Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the dame who started the whole rumpus. Topping it all off: a piece that featured the local chinstrokerati tsk-tsking that Obama should have known better.
Uh-huh.
Crosstown rival Boston Globe has been more selfie-possessed: The stately local broadsheet ran a New York Times wire story yesterday and has pretty much given the Great Dane the air.
But cruise down I-95 to the Big Town, and the New York Post more than makes up for the Globe’s selfie-restraint.
Post firebrand Andrea Peyser really unloads on Obama’s merry memorial. We’ll skip right to the climactic conclusion:
Thorning-Schmidt attempted to laugh off the whole thing, saying, “It was not inappropriate.’’ Not inappropriate?
Pairing a black suit and blue tie is not inappropriate. Giving your wife grounds for divorce might be seen as otherwise.
But people won’t soon forget the escapades of the people whose salaries they pay.
President Obama has some ’splaining to do. To the woman he married. To his daughters. To the people of South Africa. And to the scandalized folks here at home.
He owes the world an apology.
Wow. Talk about selfie-righteous, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrea Peyser, Barack Obama, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, chinstrokerati, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Howie Carr, Margery Eagan, New York Post, New York Times, shutterbug diplomacy | Permalink
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This is mother’s milk to the feisty local tabloid.
(Well, processed mother’s milk, actually – this issue surfaced last month, as a quick scan of the Googletron reveals.)
Regardless, Margery Eagan’s column puts the rumpus back in play in a most Heraldish way.
Battle Brews in Brookline
Town eyes school change on Boston border
Welcome to Brookline, my adopted hometown.
It’s a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. It’s where Town Meeting OK’d non-citizens voting in local elections, put the kibosh on spanking and banned plastic bags and Styrofoam. We’re right-thinking and compassionate in Brookline — unless you live too close to Boston.
If you own a condo or home or rent an apartment that straddles the Brookline/Boston line — sorry, the Kumbayas are out the window. It’s get outta town and don’t try sending your kids to our schools.
Yeah, that sanctuary thing comes up every time. But there’s a lot at stake here: the value of the “straddling” homes, the education of kids too young to be in school now (straddler kids can stay in Brookline schools, but no more will get in), the example Brookline’s actions could set for other towns struggling with school overcrowding. (There are more details in this Herald report.)
What’s the solution?
As a longtime Brookline resident and one of 17 home subscribers to the Boston Herald, the hardreading staff believes it has standing to offer this modest proposal:
Keep everything the way it is now, but when the owners go to sell the “straddling” homes, they can only sell to buyers 65 years of age or older.
Think of it as a two-way Grandfather Clause.
Brookline Town Fath- . . . er, Mothers: Are you listening?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Gustus, Boston Herald, Brookline/Boston line, Glenn Koocher, Grandfather Clause, Lexington Public Schools Superintendent, Lynnfield Town Administrator, Margery Eagan, Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Paul Ash, People's Republic of Brookline, Rebecca Stone, Tom Scott, Town Meeting | Permalink
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If it’s Advent, it’s open season on nativity scenes everywhere.
But pity especially poor Quincy, MA, which suffered yet another creching loss on Wednesday.
From boston.com:
Statues stolen from Quincy Center nativity scene; third theft in nine years
Statues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and a lamb were stolen from a nativity scene in Quincy Square early Thursday morning and a shepherd left behind on a sidewalk in the third such incident at the creche scene in the past nine years, Quincy police said . . .
A street sweeper discovered the crime when he found the shepherd statue on a nearby sidewalk at around 2:24 a.m., police said.
“The shepherd was out on the sidewalk and the Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and a lamb were missing,” said Captain John Dougan, Quincy police spokesman.
Happily, the Boston Globe reported yesterday, at least some of the lost are found.
Statues from nativity scene are recovered
Lamb taken from Quincy creche is still missing
Three statues plundered from a nativity scene in Quincy Center sometime overnight Wednesday were discovered undamaged early Friday by a construction crew and were returned to the manger Friday afternoon, officials said.
“They found Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the end of Furnace Avenue,” said Captain John Dougan, Quincy police spokesman. “They found all of them except for the lamb. That is still on the lam.”
Bada-boom.
Yesterday’s Boston Herald print edition, which was thinner than the gold on a week-end wedding ring (tip o’ the pixel to the great Raymond Chandler), had nothing about the recovery.
Regardless, here’s our question for the good folks of Quincy:
What’s the Baby Jeez doing out there on December 4th?
Is this some kind of Preemie Jesus protest in the War on the War on Christmas?
Or what?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Baby Jeez, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, boston.com, Captain John Doughan, Jesus Mary and Joseph, preemie Jesus, Quincy nativity scene, Raymond Chandler, thinner than the gold on a week-end wedding ring, War on the War on Christmas | Permalink
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Nifty compare ‘n’ contrast in the Boston dailies today regarding their coverage of Emerson College’s renaming its communication school the Ron Burgundy School of Communication.
Selling ‘Anchorman 2’
Bold campaign could start new trend
Will Ferrell’s visit to Emerson College as TV newsman Ron Burgundy — the latest in his tour of quirky in-character appearances to sell the “Anchorman” sequel — is a “brilliant” marketing strategy, industry insiders say, that could set a new standard for movie promotion if it pays off at the box office.
“It is quite an amazing campaign,” said John Verret, a Boston College advertising professor and former ad executive.
(Not to get technical about it, but John Verret teaches at Boston University – not BC. Ron himself couldn’t have done it better.)
“If there are people in the movie business who thought they could pull it off and this does work, then I think you are going to see lots of attempts to do it,” Verret added . . .
Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Anchorman 2, Bismarck N.D., Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CBS, Emerson College, Emmanuel Paraschos, KXMB, Mark Leccese, Names, Ron Burgundy, Ron Burgundy School of Communication, Sneak Adtack, Will Ferrell | Permalink
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From our Walt Whitman desk
So what pops up on page two of today’s Boston Herald but . . . Page One.
The inaugural edition:
December 5, 2013: Welcome to the Page One Blog
Welcome, everyone, to the Page One Blog, where we’re going to provide some information and details on each day’s Boston Herald cover.
As Page One Editor, it is my goal — working in conjunction with Editor in Chief Joe Sciacca and Managing Editor/Creative Gustavo Leon — to produce an impactful, interesting and engaging cover page. The emphasis on Page One is solely only-in-the-Herald content, be it stories broken by our reporters, exclusive interviews, the passionate opinions of our news, political and sports columnists, or simply a compelling staff photograph. Obviously, there’s excellent material to work with!
If they do say so themselves.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Herald, Gustavo Leon, Joe Sciacca, Page One blog, Paul Keaney, Walt Whitman | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
The shotgun wedding between Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker and lieutenant governor hopeful Karyn Polito had its engagement announcement in Monday’s Boston Globe.
Running mate issue gets thornier for Charlie Baker
Karyn E. Polito, the former Republican legislator who lost a 2010 run for state treasurer, is poised to announce her candidacy for lieutenant governor this week, a move that puts GOP gubernatorial favorite Charlie Baker in a difficult spot as he ponders a potential running mate.
Polito, a 47-year old Shrewsbury resident, is expected to declare as early as Tuesday that she will seek the nomination for the second spot on the 2014
gubernatorial ticket, according to several state Republicans with knowledge of her plans.
Baker is expected to lead the ticket, and Polito’s candidacy would pose a politically ticklish question for him: whether to try to control the makeup of his ticket, as he successfully did in his 2010 run for governor, or to leave the decision to voters.
Having Polito as a running mate could be both an asset and a potential liability.
And etc.
The GOPpy couple tied the knot in today’s edition of our stately local broadsheet.
Charlie Baker picks Karyn Polito as running mate
Nod to conservatives may also help him with women voters
SHREWSBURY — Charlie Baker, the leading Republican candidate for governor, named former state representative Karyn Polito as his running mate Tuesday, presenting voters with a unified ticket fully 11 months before the gubernatorial election.
Polito’s selection serves as an overture to party conservatives, among whom she is popular, and as an effort to raise Baker’s standing among female voters, a
constituency he lost heavily when he ran for the corner office in 2010.
Her hometown of Shrewsbury also bolsters Baker’s candidacy in Worcester County, a stronghold for Republicans in recent elections.
Polito, in her 2010 bid for state treasurer, racked up more votes than Baker did in the three-way race for governor. As she announced her candidacy at a Shrewsbury diner on Tuesday, she said she wants voters to see her as a “mom, a business owner, and an optimist.”
Leave it to the Boston Herald, though, to crash the reception.
Insider: Pick not Charlie’s first choice
Former State Rep. Karyn Polito wasn’t Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker’s first choice — or even his second, according to a source who said Baker considered several other female GOP running mates and even former Attorney General Tom Reilly before settling on Polito.
“It’s not uncommon, when candidates look for running mates, that you get further down the list than you hope to,” said a Republican source close to the Baker campaign. “Discussions were had with a lot of other people, and there were a lot who weren’t interested.”
Karyn Polito: mom, business owner, optimist . . . second runner-up.
According to the piece by Hillary Chabot and Matt Stout, “Baker . . . reached out to Mary Connaughton, a former GOP candidate for auditor, who told the Herald two weeks ago that she turned down the offer because she is happy with her job at the Pioneer Institute.”
Finishing behind Connaughton is one thing, but Tom Reilly? Really?
Today’s feisty local tabloid also has a Joe Battenfeld piece on the Two-Time Charlie/Karyn Enough knot-tying, along with a pro & con honeymoon preview.
(Skunk at the Garden Party honors go to the Globe’s Scot Lehigh, who says Massachusetts should tear the sheets and dump the lieutenant governor’s office altogether, which will happen about the same time Baker and Polito adopt Tim Murray).
The hardreading staff gives that couple 11 months.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Charlie Baker, Hillary Chabot, Joe Battenfeld, Karyn Polito, Mary Connaughton, Matt Stout, Pioneer Institute, Scot Lehigh, Tim Murray, Tom Reilly, Two-Time Charlie | Permalink
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It’s all gubernatorial all the time at the feisty local tabloid today.
Start with the Herald’s big announcement:
Herald, Suffolk U. team for gov race
On to the race for governor!
The Herald and Suffolk University, building on the success of an innovative partnership in providing in-depth coverage of the Boston mayoral race, are teaming up again for the Massachusetts governor’s race.
Respected pollster David Paleologos will offer his surveys and analysis exclusively in the Herald along with deep behind-the-numbers analysis in his featured “Poll Pal” column. Suffolk’s John Nucci will weigh in with commentary on the latest from the campaign trail alongside Herald reporters and columnists.
New this campaign cycle will be “Boiler Room,” a webcast featuring Suffolk students and professors joining Herald political staffers and GOP and Democratic strategists to look closely at the issues and campaign messages.
Here’s how that looks:
And this:
And this:
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The Herald should be covering Suffolk University, not serving as its satellite campus.
But wait! There’s actually a Suffolk-Free Zone at the Herald, starting with Hillary Chabot’s column on the Menino Machine being up for grabs in the gubernatorial race.
The impending demise of Mayor Tom Menino’s king-making political machinery means Boston is wide open in the upcoming gubernatorial race — and even GOP candidate Charlie Baker is looking to make inroads in the true blue city.
“I think Boston will be very much in play,” said former Boston City Councilor John Tobin, who noted that the same well-honed operation that clinched statewide elections for Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will fragment when Menino leaves office in January.
“There’s a splintering effect,” Tobin said. “It took a long time to build that machine and it’s going to be interesting to see how the race takes shape.”
Not surprising then that Holly Robichaud’s piece predicts blood ‘n’ guts in the Democratic primary.
Nationally many congressional Democrats in vulnerable seats have already started to abandon the Obama regime and the Obamascare law. With millions more voters about to lose their employer health insurance coverage, the ranks of mutiny will grow.
Back here at home the division will be brought on by a nasty Democrat gubernatorial primary now that John Walsh is no longer the state party chairman. There will be no clearing of the field like Walsh did for Lizzy Warren.
It’s going to be a Democrat shootout at the O.K. Corral between Attorney General Marsha [really?] Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman as they fight for their political lives.
That’s what Two-Time Charlie Baker is hoping as well.
(Crosstown rival Boston Globe, meanwhile, looks at a potentially pesky partnership Baker might have if Karyn Polito succeeds in a GOP lieutenant governor bid.)
Let the [your campaign spending estimate goes here] rumpus begin!
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boiler Room, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, David Paleologos, GOP, Hillary Chabot, Holly Robichaud, Inside the Race for Mayor, Joe Battenfeld, John Nucci, Karyn Polito, lieutenant governor, Menino machine, Poll Pal, Race for Governor, Suffolk University, Two-Time Charlie Baker | Permalink
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As the hardreading staff wrote late last week, new Boston Herald columnist/Boston Herald Radio host Adriana Cohen came to the job(s) with an 
entangling alliance: She serves on the Finance Committee of Two-Time Charlie Baker’s GOP gubernatorial campaign. We contacted her on Friday to ask if she would be leaving that position now that she works for the feisty local tabloid.
“That’s up in the air right now,” she told us.
So we waited a decent interval and tried again. And here’s what she replied today:
There is no conflict of interest. I’m a radio host and opinion writer, not a reporter.
That’s no surprise at a news organization that allows other columnists to appear at public fundraising events for Republican candidates (c’mon down, Howie Carr and Michael Graham!).
But it’s nothing a legitimate news organization would allow.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Adriana Cohen, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Finance Committee, Howie Carr, Michael Graham, Two-Time Charlie Baker | Permalink
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Yesterday the hardreading staff chronicled the Great Boston Official Tree Lighting Snub delivered to the Herald by Boston Mayor Tom Menino. Of course we fully expected a makeup in today’s edition of the frosted local tabloid. And there it is, smack dab on Page 15.
So now the Globe and Herald are even.
Until next ad.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Official Tree Lighting, Tom Menino | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 