Two Funerals and Awaiting

May 5, 2013

Today’s local dailies have – wait for it – very different takes on the disposition of suspected Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body.

Start – where else? – with the Boston Herald’s front page:

 

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Inside you get a twofer: this Peter Gelzinis column and, more notably, this news report:

TED_3598.jpgFuneral director asks for help from government

‘This is a nightmare’

A Worcester funeral home director is pleading for government officials to use their influence to convince a cemetery to bury Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but so far no state or federal authorities have stepped forward to help out.

“We have a body for burial that has caused a lot of controversy and we can’t continue to play this game,” said Peter Stefan, owner of the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors. “Under normal circumstances, the government would say it’s (the funeral parlor’s) responsibility to find a place for burial, but this is not normal circumstances. This is a nightmare.”

 

Okay. But crosstown at the Boston Globe, we get a very different Peter Stefan, in this case well into a piece headlined “Bombing suspects body to undergo 2nd autopsy.”

Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnum & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, vowed to secure a plot quickly.

“This ends Monday,” Stefan said. “We will find a cemetery by the end of the day Monday.”

Stefan said he was determined to give Tsarnaev a proper Muslim burial in a cemetery with what he referred to as a designated Muslim section . . .

“If they had asked me to bury Adolf Hitler, I would have buried him,” Stefan said. “It’s what we do.”

 

Wow. Just imagine what the Herald could have done if Stefan had given that quote to the feisty local tabloid.

Then again, the story’s young. Let’s wait for it.

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Editorial Page Smackdown: Herald Blowtorches Globe

May 4, 2013

Have some asbestos gloves handy if you’re reading the Boston Herald today. Here’s the lede of the lead editorial:

The whole narrative confirms that while the radical motivations of the Tsarnaev brothers — and perhaps, it remains to be seen, some of their training — came from international jihadist movements, the bombing was also the product of family dysfunction, youthful nihilism, and a pattern of low-level crimes escalating into a very major one.” —Boston Globe editorial May 3.

Dear Officer Krupke — of “West Side Story” fame — please call your office. Clearly these boys just have a social disease, so take ’em to a social worker.

It takes a lot for our competitors on Morrissey Boulevard to really get under our skin, but this one just sent us over the edge.

 

What gets the feisty local tabloid is “the [Globe’s] skepticism about whether the Brothers Tsarnaev were trained by international jihadists” coupled with “[the Globe’s] utter certainty that these two were the product of a dysfunctional family and ‘youthful nihilism.'”

If youthful nihilism is “all it takes to place a backpack with a bomb at the feet of an 8-year-old child and calmly walk away,” the editorial says, “then this nation is in one heap of trouble.”

(Sidebar: The Herald is pursuing the international jihadist angle in its news pages as well, as this piece from today’s paper shows.)

As usual, the comments on the Herald website range from rabid to ribald, but this one is reprintable:

 

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Probably be good for business. Theirs and ours.

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Local Dailies Taking Care of (One Another’s) Business

May 3, 2013

In a variation on the old Does Macy’s Tell Gimbel’s? question, the Globe is telling on the Herald – and vice versa.

From Wednesday’s Boston Globe:

Globe circulation continues climb

Paid digital subscriptions rise nearly 50%

Paid circulation at The Boston Globe continues to climb on the strength of digital subscriptions, which shot up by almost 50 percent in six months, according to figures released Tuesday by the Alliance for Audited Media.

The Globe’s weekday circulation, which includes print readership and digital subscriptions, was 245,572 during the six-month period ended in March — the highest since 2009 and 8.9 percent higher than figures for the same period a year earlier. Sunday circulation rose 4.6 percent to 382,452.

 

But amid the good news, the bad:

The Boston Herald, which charges for an electronic replica of its print edition but offers free access to its website, reported 9,810 weekday digital subscriptions and total circulation of 95,929, an overall decline of 11.6 percent.

The Herald’s Sunday circulation fell 10.8 percent to 73,043.

The Herald did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Not only that, the Herald did not report its precipitous circulation decline.

But the feisty local tabloid did report the turmoil at Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting of Globe parent New York Times Co.

STON1787.JPGNew York Times execs on hot seat

Shareholders question wages, Globe sale

NEW YORK — New York Times executives came under pressure over their hefty compensation packages from shareholders yesterday who peppered the corporate brass with questions about belt-tightening and plans to jettison properties such as the Boston Globe.

“What kind of sacrifices have the executives made?” asked William Niederkorn, a former Times reporter, at the 117th annual shareholders meeting. He said he is dismayed to watch the Times’ stock value plummet.

“The stock was once $50 a share, now it’s down to $4,” he said.

 

Just about how much the Herald might be valued on the open market.

Poetic justice, yes?

Regardless, the Globe, in turn, did not report the Times Co. shareholder dustup.

Just another crisscross in the two-daily town.

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Herald (At Last!) Has Memorial Ad-vantage Over Globe

April 30, 2013

After eating its crosstown rival’s dust for two weeks, the Boston Herald finally got more love on the tribute advertising front than the Globe. All the stately local broadsheet has today is this quarter-page ad from Boston Sports Clubs:

 

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The feisty local tabloid, on the other hand, has this full-page ad from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce:

 

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Chalk one up for the little guy, eh?

 

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Globe Runs Massive Marathon Bombing Tick-Tock; Herald, a Tic

April 28, 2013

From our Compare & Contrast in Clear Idiomatic English desk

Some days – very often Sundays – the difference between the local dailies is starker than usual. Today is one such day.

The Boston Globe has published what, so far at least, is the definitive chronicle of the five days between the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line and the apprehension of the surviving bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Page One:

 

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What follows is an eight-page reconstruction of the week’s events “based on more than 100 interviews with police, government officials, and witnesses.”

The extensive timeline included in the special section features extensive infographics like this one (click to enlarge):

 

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Meanwhile, the Boston Herald tossed off this (click to enlarge):

 

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No one expects the feisty local tabloid can do the sort of flood-the-zone, Pulitzer-seeking coverage the Globe can. But you’d think it could certainly do better than “Rude awakening.”

Then again, maybe the hardreading staff needs to wake up itself, and lower the bar accordingly.

 

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Globe & Herald in Photo Finish with Matt Damon

April 26, 2013

From our Don’t Know What to Make of This desk

This is a headscratcher: Carbon-copy photos in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, attributed to different photographers.

From the Herald’s Inside Track:

_DSC3739.jpgMatt Damon: ‘It’s good to be home’

“(Bleeping) disgusting.”

Matt Damon may be a Harvard man, but when he heard Mark Wahlberg’s reaction to the Boston Marathon attacks, he thought it summed up pretty well what everyone from Boston was thinking.

“Being from Boston, that day is sacrosanct,” the Oscar winner said yesterday. “We’re all out of school … My brother, for the first time in 10 years he wasn’t standing at the finish line with my two nephews. Half the time, he ran it. It’s a very life-affirming day. And I’m sorry to say, but I saw a quote Mark Wahlberg had … and you know, being from this community, that’s the perfect description of what we felt.” Photo credit: Ted Fitzgerald.

 

From the Boston Globe’s Names column:

MattDamonatHarvard1Matt Damon receives Arts Medal from Harvard

We’re guessing Harvard won’t make a habit of honoring dropouts, but the school made an exception Thursday for Matt Damon.

The actor, who has somehow managed to do all right without ever graduating from the World’s Greatest University — he attended from 1988-1992 — was presented with the 2013 Harvard Arts Medal during a ceremony at Sanders Theater. Photo credit: Bill Brett

 

Is it just us, or are those photos identical?

How does that happen?

Or is it just us.

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Hack Attack by Boston Herald!!

April 25, 2013

From our Two Different Worlds desk

Luckily for us, our feisty local tabloid has dug deep and unearthed the real villains in the Boston Marathon bombings.

Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts welfare system.

The action gets started on Page One:

 

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Then it really picks up steam on pages 4 and 5.

 

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Here’s a close-up of the bureaucratic sweep:

 

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So that’s five – count ’em, five – reporters on this story, plus his ‘n’ her bookend columns by Howie Carr and Margery Eagan.

Carr:

We deserve to know what our tax $ paid for

It’s time for all the bureaucrats, paper-shufflers and flak-catchers to come clean on the Tsarnaev clan, those chiseling Chechens who tried to kill us last week.

Open the damn books! If somebody tries to murder you, you have a right to know everything about them, privacy be damned. I want to know everything about them, and I want to know it now, right down to the quality of the weed Dzhokhar was peddling down at UMass Dartmouth.

 

Eagan:

Hacks covering own tracks in name of privacy

Here’s what we’re talking about: One accused mass murderer who’s practically confessed to killing three marathon bystanders, plus a police officer, and injuring 260 others. And his brother, killed after a gunfight in which yet another police officer nearly died.

Yet the state and federal government bureaucrats are telling you, me and every taxpayer who mailed their tax checks on the very day of the marathon bombings that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s privacy matters more than our right to know how extensively our tax dollars may have contributed to their terrorist plot.

 

But wait – there’s more! This editorial:

Supporting a terrorist

The Tsarnaev brothers lived in America long enough to understand the generosity of her people. In fact they should have understood that generosity better than most given that they benefited from it personally — and in the form of actual taxpayer cash.

We learned this week that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the apparent mastermind of the Boston Marathon bombing, was until recently supporting his family with the help of a government check.

 

And etc.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, meanwhile, the welfare issue isn’t even on their radar screen.

The only question left: Which of the two is Bizarro World?

 

 

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What Did Tyler Tweet? Boston Globe Not Seguin

April 24, 2013

Chalk up yet another homophobic tweet, this time from Boston Bruins player Tyler Seguin. As Track Gal Gayle Fee noted in today’s Boston Herald:

_TED4747.jpgSeguin sorry for tweet

Bruins baby Tyler Seguin apologized yesterday for a tweet he sent out that some have called homophobic. Seguin, who appeared in a video with Boston rapper Slaine, sent out a missive about it saying, “Just listened to the song in my bed. Gave me goosebumps no homo…” The tweet came at an inopportune time, seeing as how theNHL just became the first professional league to partner with the gay rights organization You Can Play.

Seguin apparently realized he’d done something dumb almost immediately and deleted the tweet and apologized within minutes of sending it.

 

Of course, tweet-and-delete is sort of a flawed gameplan, as, say, Anthony Weiner could tell you.

But Seguin got lucky crosstown at the Boston Globe, where the Namesniks pre-deleted it for his convenience.

Tyler Seguin apologizes for tweeting homophobic slur

Bruins forward Tyler Seguin has apologized for using a homophobic slur in a tweet about a music video by Boston rapper Slaine. “Last night I made an insensitive comment which I sincerely regret,” @tylerseguin92 tweeted Tuesday. “It was my mistake and I want to apologize to those who were offended.” Monday night, the 21-year-old forward tweeted a link to the video, which apparently features a couple of Seguin’s friends. He quickly deleted the post and tweeted an apology: “You know when your half asleep and say or write something without thinking twice or realizing what you said. Apologies on last tweet. Gnight.”

 

The rest of the item contains a non-comment from the Bruins and a statement from You Can Play about how Tyler made a mistake but he’ll learn from it.

For now, though, the biggest lesson is that the Globe plays better defense than Seguin does.

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Howie Carr’s Next Column

April 24, 2013

You’re Howie Carr and here’s what you wrote in today’s Boston Herald:

A hit to Deval Patrick’s welfare state

Is Gov. Deval Patrick serious? He doesn’t know the motivation of the terrorists?

On Sunday he went on “Face the Nation,” and host Bob Schieffer asked him if he had “any clearer idea” of why the “two young men” did it.

“Not yet, Bob,” Deval began, more than 48 hours after the shootout. “Uh, and it’s hard, it’s hard for me and for many to imagine what could motivate, uh, people to, uh, harm, uh, innocent men, women and children, uh, in the way that, uh, these two fellows did.”

Two fellows indeed. He’d rather
tell a whopper on national TV than acknowledge the grim 
results of his beloved immigration and welfare policies.

 

That would be the same Herald that featured this front page today:

 

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You’re Howie Carr and you have the usual ten minutes to write your next piece, so you grab the Boston Globe for some easy pickin’s. And on Page One, you strike gold:

tamerlanTsarnaev brothers appeared to have scant finances

The older brother liked to look like a man of means, once posing for a photo in front of a gleaming Mercedes sporting a long wool scarf and white leather slip-on shoes. But Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was a stay-at-home dad, relying on his wife to work long hours as a home health care aide to support the family.

And the car? Tsarnaev most recently owned a 15-year-old Honda.

Tsarnaev’s younger brother never seemed strapped for cash, according to people who knew him at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where he was a sophomore. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a scholarship student who earned spending money by selling marijuana, say three people who bought drugs from the 19-year-old.

 

Scant finances? Thank you, Jesus.

Best of all, here’s what’s buried in the 18th graf:

Indeed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his family had so little income that they even qualified for state assistance until 2012, state health and human services spokesman Alec Loftus said Tuesday. Both brothers also received benefits through their parents when they were younger. The welfare benefits were first reported by the Boston Herald.

 

You’re Howie Carr and you’re thinking, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

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Boston Herald: All the Clues That Fit, We Print

April 23, 2013

While most news organizations are still trying to find out what actually did happen last week in the wake of the Marathon bombings, the Boston Herald is busily reporting what will (or won’t) happen.

Today’s front page:

 

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The story itself :

 

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Lede:

Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is likely to avoid the death penalty, could entirely avoid a trial and in the hands of the right lawyer might win a modicum of mercy, argued top-ranked defense attorneys who have represented some of the nation’s most notorious terrorists and killers.

 

One lawyer says because law enforcement was late to Mirandize Tsarnaev, “He’s been denied the right to a fair trial.” Another “picked through the government’s indictment yesterday and deemed it ‘circumstantial.'”

But the feisty local tabloid saved the best for last:

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a member of OJ Simpson’s “dream team,” said, “The case will go down one of two ways. Either plea bargain … or he’ll want to become a martyr and he’ll admit everything, boast about the crime, seek to justify it and demand the death penalty.”

 

Seriously? That’s it? No third way, Professor D?

Impressive.

Meanwhile, crosstown at the Boston Globe, this was all they had on the legal front:

Suspect charged with using weapon of mass destruction

The US Justice Department charged Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Monday with killing people with a weapon of mass destruction, in a prosecution that could put the accused terrorist in prison for life or send him to the death chamber.

 

Boring, eh?

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