Brown/Warren Debate and Ditch

October 1, 2012

Scott Brown (R-Clearly I’m Not) and Elizabeth Warren (D- Oh Yes He Is) have their much anticipated second U.S. Senate debate tonight. And since the debate is sponsored by UMass-Lowell and the Boston Herald, it’s also much hyperventilated in the feisty local tabloid, which devotes ten – count ’em, ten – pages to the bakeoff, including Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

Beyond the obligatory tale of the tape (which the hardsearching staff can’t find on the Herald’s website,) their are five – count ’em, five – thumbsucking columns. Chinstrokers Row comprises Joe Battenfeld, Jessica Heslam, Holly Robichaud, Kimberly Atkins and Andy Hiller of WHDH-TV, which will broadcast the debate.

PLUS . . . an editorial AND an op-ed by our BU colleague Tobe Berkovitz.

Whew!

As for the Boston Globe, they have exactly zero – count ’em, zero – mentions of the debate.

We’ll check back in when it’s the Globe’s turn to sponsor a debate.

 

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Mass. State Police Drug Lab(yrinth)

October 1, 2012

The current Massachusetts crime-lab rumpus is nicely revealing the true nature of Boston’s local dailies.

From Sunday’s Boston Globe (boink! sorry, paywall):

How a chemist dodged lab protocols

Close supervision is key in a lab, specialists say, and Annie Dookhan’s appeared to lack it

State drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan labeled the vials as containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. But when another chemist ran the vials through a machine to confirm Dookhan’s analysis, one had little THC, and another was mixed with morphine and codeine.

The second chemist sent the vials back to Dookhan to resolve the discrepancies, asking her to repeat the screening test the lab used to tentatively identify the drugs in an evidence bag. When she resubmitted them, the machine showed the vials contained pure THC.

The incident, detailed in a 100-page State Police report obtained by the Globe last week, illustrates one of the many ways Dookhan was able to circumvent safeguards intended to ensure that drug evidence was properly handled and analyzed by workers in a now-closed lab formerly run by the state Department of Public Health.

Forensics specialists interviewed by the Globe say the lab’s procedures appear to have been fairly standard, including having two chemists test every sample, but they were still not enough to prevent an ambitious chemist’s rampant breaches of lab protocol, apparently to boost her performance record. In the process, investigators say, Dookhan has jeopardized the reliability of drug evidence used in 34,000 cases during her nine-year career.

Substantive, no?

Not so in Sunday’s Boston Herald:

Lab-freed ‘villains’ eyed as Deval’s downfall

Horton effect could sink gov’s future

Every accused drug dealer sprung from jail thanks to the state crime-lab fiasco could be another Willie Horton waiting to snuff out Gov. Deval Patrick’s aspirations for higher office, political watchers say.

“If Deval Patrick were to run for president, this would be a huge issue,” former state treasurer Joe Malone, a Republican, said. “This is a case where every American would understand that this kind of malpractice on his administration’s part puts criminals back on the street. Willie Horton certainly comes to mind.”

Horton is the convicted murderer whose violent crime spree while on weekend furlough from prison under Michael Dukakis’ watch was the subject of an infamous attack ad that helped sink the former governor’s 1988 presidential bid.

And now Patrick, who has said he will not run for re-election and is seen as a rising Democratic star on the national stage, must watch as offenders in potentially thousands of cases try to use evidence tainted by alleged rogue chemist Annie Dookhan, who was arrested Friday, as their ticket to freedom.

No investigation. Just speculation.

That’s right: The Herald.

 

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Lab Rate

September 30, 2012

The Massachusetts State Police Drug Lab kerfuffle produced very different front-page coverage in Saturday’s local dailies.

(Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

Check inside for further details.

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Native Americans Whomp ‘Em in Massachusetts Senate Race

September 28, 2012

Elizabeth Warren’s soi disant Native American heritage has drawn fire not just from incumbent Sen. Scott Brown, but also from Native Americans.

Except it’s hard to know that from the Boston Globe coverage.

Cherokee chief rips Brown campaign

The principal chief of the Cherokee Nation denounced Senator Scott Brown’s campaign staffers on Wednesday for what he called offensive and racist behavior against Native Americans, and he called on Brown to apologize.

A day earlier, Democrats released a video filmed outside a Brown campaign event showing Republican staff members, including an aide in Brown’s Senate office, performing tomahawk chops and shouting war whoops amid a crowd of boisterous supporters of both candidates.

The gestures appeared to mock Elizabeth Warren’s professed Native American ancestry.

“The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse,” the chief, Bill John Baker, said in a statement. “The use of stereotypical ‘war whoop chants’ and ‘tomahawk chops’ are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples.”

But . . .

Buried deep in the piece was this:

[Sen. Brown’s] campaign also released a comment from a member of the Pequot tribe calling Warren a fraud for her undocumented claims of Native American ancestry.

Cut to . . . the Boston Herald’s coverage:

Native Americans rip Scott and Liz

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown delivered his “one and only warning” to staffers about their behavior after a video captured tomahawk-chopping supporters, but while a top Cherokee official demanded Brown apologize, other Native Americans said they’re still waiting for Elizabeth Warren to admit she’s no Cherokee.

“For the most part, I saw it as stupid behavior,” Twila Barnes said of the clip featuring Brown supporters doing war whoops and toma-hawk chops. “But Elizabeth Warren has stolen our entire identity. If she had been a real Cherokee, they wouldn’t have behaved like that. They were doing it because she’s fake.”

Fake heritage, fake issue, fake outrage – take your pick.

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Split Decision on ‘Last Resort’

September 27, 2012

The fall television season is upon us, which means the return of familiar shows and the debut of new ones. It also means TV reviews, to see which one are worth watching.

Or not, if you read both local dailies.

Case in point: the ABC’s new drama series Last Resort.

The Boston Globe’s Matthew Gilbert likes it, he really likes it:

‘Last Resort’: Paranoia below the sea

There’s no question in my mind that most TV sci-fi dramas have some precedent in “The Twilight Zone.” Rod Serling’s stark, brilliant anthology series, which ran from 1959-63, messed with all kinds of cosmic possibilities – about existence, about childhood, about time and space, about good and evil, about politics, technology, and the future. There were humans, aliens, robots, mutants, dreams, and apocalypses, the last of which are particularly popular these days in primetime. From “Lost,” “FlashForward,” and “Fringe” to “Revolution” and ABC’s fascinating new “Last Resort,” TV is still toying with the what-ifs and watch-outs explored in TV’s great uber-ancestor.

But the Herald’s Mark Perigard? Not so much.

‘Last Resort’ aptly named

Nuke-happy network drama’s a bust

An anti-Muslim video created by an idiot and posted to YouTube has provoked violence worldwide.

Tonight, a commercial network releases an expensive-looking drama that casually drops two nuclear bombs on Pakistan and obliterates millions — off-screen, thankfully.

It gets better.

Our “hero,” late in the hour, detonates a nuclear bomb on American soil — just to prove a point.

To be fair, “Last Resort” does not insult ideology — it merely knocks your intelligence.

Anybody got a coin we can flip?

 

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Brown Rally Goes Chop Chop To Globe Front Page

September 26, 2012

Yesterday’s rally shenanigans by staffers of Sen. Scott Brown (Whomp ’em) went straight to the front page 0f today’s Boston Globe.

Republican aides shown doing war chants

Warren decries actions outside Brown event

In a tough new ad and in his attacks at last week’s debate, Senator Scott Brown has stoked questions about Elizabeth Warren’s professed Native American ancestry. But the difficulty of seizing on the controversy without crossing into uncomfortable racial territory became apparent Tuesday with the release of a video showing Republican staff members, including an aide in Brown’s Senate office, performing tomahawk chops and war whoops outside one of his campaign events.

Brown said such behavior is “not something I condone,” but declined to apologize.

“The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that Professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody, a Native American, and used that for an advantage, a tactical advantage,” Brown said.

Pretty lame. But there was no ‘splainin’ from Brown in the Herald, which dismissed the story with a page 4 squib:

Warren on tomahawk chop video: Cut it out!

Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren says she was “appalled” at a video that appeared to show supporters of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown — including at least one staffer — performing war whoops and tomahawk chops, saying if one of her campaign workers did such a thing there would be “serious consequences.”

Asked whether she was appalled as an American Indian, Warren told reporters: “I am appalled as an American.”

“I think everyone knew what he was up to,” said Warren, who has been dogged by a growing scandal over her unsupported claims of Cherokee heritage and her professional claims of minority status.

This isn’t going to get any prettier, folks.

 

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Debate and Switch

September 24, 2012

Both local dailies front-page debate stories today as campaign season shifts into high(er) gear.

Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

 

 

 

The Globe piece is pretty straightforward:

First debate called critical for Mitt Romney

Higher stakes than for Obama

After months of sniping from a distance, President Obama and Mitt Romney are nearing the unsparing crucible of one-on-one debates that could alter the dynamics of the presidential campaign.

For Romney, particularly, the stakes are enormous.

After a month of missteps and missed opportunities — from his convention speech, to his reaction after the US ambassador’s death in Libya, to a video in which he described nearly half the country as government-dependent “victims” — Romney faces three debates in the national spotlight, beginning Oct. 3 in Denver, that could bolster or bury his chances.

“Unquestionably, he has to do well in the first debate,” said Rob Gray, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser in Romney’s successful 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor. “There’s more on the line for him, whereas Obama has proven before that he can handle it.”

The Herald, on the other hand, has three – count ’em, three – columnists on debate patrol. Start with Joe Battenfeld’s cover story:

A glimpse inside Mitt’s strategy

He’s not Mitt Romney, but he got to play one in debate practice. And he says the real Mitt needs to resurrect his personable performance from 10 years ago to beat President Obama in their upcoming face-to-face showdowns.

Jeffrey Robbins, a Boston attorney who played the role of Romney as Democrat Shannon O’Brien prepared for the debates in the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race, divulged for the first time key details of the Democrats’ strategy to turn Romney into “Gordon Gekko” — a strategy that ultimately failed then.

Robbins predicts Obama’s debate plan will come right out of the playbook 10 years ago, when Democratic gubernatorial nominee O’Brien tried to reinforce Romney’s image as a greedy, out-of-touch businessman.

Bit of a stretch there, eh?

Next up is Holly Robichaud’s piece giving advice to Romney.

Like Brown, Mitt must pack a punch in his debate

Last week it was great to see an aggressive U.S. Sen. Scott Brown take on Lizzy Warren. After months of her endless whining commercials, Brown called her out on multiple issues — including her fake American Indian status, helping Travelers Insurance avoid paying poisoned asbestos workers and her whopping $350,000 salary for teaching one class at Harvard University.

Brown had the right combination of talking directly to voters and discrediting Fauxahontas. He showed how a candidate can remain likable, but still deliver a solid punch.

Our former Gov. Mitt Romney would do well to take a page out of this playbook. President Obama is not going to be forced out of the White House if Romney keeps playing defense. It is time to put points on the board.

Finally, Kimberly Atkins weighs in:

Wisdom of pols’ rules is debatable

WASHINGTON — The debate season is in full swing, and with it we are seeing the emergence of a nifty approach by some candidates as they prepare to face their rivals face-to-face: avoidance by agreement.

The true pioneer of this debate is U.S. Rep. John Tierney who, as the Herald reported, insisted sponsors of two of four scheduled debates with GOP challenger Richard Tisei focus only on certain topics and preclude the participants from asking questions of one another.

Of course, this conveniently will allow Tierney to avoid an issue both Tisei and national Republicans have focused on: his in-laws’ gambling ring and his wife’s federal tax-evasion conviction.

Atkins goes on to relate other debate-related kerfuffles before offering some free advice to candidates, such as “[Elizabeth Warren] could try to throw U.S. Sen. Scott Brown off  his well-rehearsed game by demanding that the candidates be barred from using the word ‘professor,’ thanking the moderator after each question or referring to a truck at any point.”

The hardreading staff would be all for that.

 

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Brown Sugar From Herald On New Poll

September 20, 2012

After four consecutive polls showed Elizabeth Warren leading incumbent Scott Brown in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, the Boston Herald finally got some news it could plaster all over Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

(Extra credit: Compare and contrast, in clear idiomatic English, the photos the Herald chose of the two.)

The Globe, for its part, ran the story Metro p. 3:

New poll shows Scott Brown leading Elizabeth Warren

A new poll shows US Senator Scott Brown with a lead over Elizabeth Warren, a break from a string of four previous polls that showed Warren leading the race.

The new University of Massachusetts Lowell/Boston Herald telephone poll of 524 voters, released Wednesday night, showed Brown leading 49 percent to 45 percent among those deemed likely to vote.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 13 to 17 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. The organization’s previous poll, taken in December, showed Warren leading by 7 percentage points.

In fairness, that’s exactly where the Globe ran this piece two days ago:

Warren ahead of Brown in 3rd poll

A third new poll has found Elizabeth Warren pulling ahead of Senator Scott Brown, giving the Democratic challenger momen tum before their first debate Thursday.

A Suffolk University/WHDH-TV survey released late Monday had Warren at 48 percent and Brown at 44 percent, within the poll’s margin of error but the opposite of a similar poll in May. That Suffolk/WHDH survey had Brown at 48 percent and Warren at 47 percent.

Pollster David Paleologos attributed the shift to Warren’s national exposure through her speech at the Democratic ­National Convention, which allowed her to share a platform with President Obama, former president Bill Clinton, and other party luminaries.

(The hardsearching staff couldn’t find yesterday’s piece, about the fourth poll, in either our dead-tree edition or the Globe’s ePaper edition.)

Probably doesn’t matter. It likely all changes after tonight’s debate.

 

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Locals Rise to Phoenix Redesign

September 19, 2012

The Boston dailies ran entirely true to form in their coverage of the Boston Phoenix facelift (and a little lipo, we assume).

Yesterday’s Globe had a front-page feature that looked at the rapid erosion of  local macher Stephen Mindich’s media holdings.

A hybrid rises from the old Boston Phoenix

Alternative paper’s longtime publisher adjusts to changing times

As summer approached, staff meetings at The Boston Phoenix grew more frequent amid mounting concerns about layoffs, an announced move to new offices, and the future of the Phoenix itself.

One indication of the meetings’ importance was the presence of owner and publisher Stephen Mindich. He has guided the paper’s fortunes since the 1970s, making it the centerpiece of a youth-oriented media conglomerate, yet he had scaled back day-to-day management duties while his son Brad ran the company.

The outcome of those staff discussions has left many observers wondering if the Phoenix they have known and read for decades — a pioneering alternative weekly paper celebrated for its lively coverage of politics, media, and the arts — will be around much longer.

This Thursday, The Boston Phoenix will formally merge with its sister publication, Stuff, a glossy biweekly, into a publication called simply The Phoenix. As a newsprint entity, the old Boston Phoenix will cease to exist.

As has WFNX-FM, stripped for parts like a car left overnight on the Cross Bronx Expressway (signal to Clear Channel for $14 million, staff to boston.com to start up Radio BDC, call letters to the web for wfnx.com). Spanish-language paper El Planeta was also jettisoned. The Mindich media empire is down to a sandlot.

Crosstown at the Herald today, the Track Gals (and Megan!) have something much dishier:

Phoenix sex ads under Twitter attack

The Boston Phoenix, which will debut a new glossy-mag look this week, was under Twitter attack yesterday after someone hijacked the name of its new adult rag and began tweeting X-rated missives at advertisers, public officials and Phoenix staffers.

@BostonAtNite is not the Twitter handle of the Phoenix’s new adult publicationBoston At Nite, according to editor at large Peter Kadzis. But the “Parody” account was tweeting up Mayor Tom Menino, Attorney General Martha Coakley, clubs and bands that advertised on the Boston At Nite website and columnists for the alternative weekly.

“Find your underage sex slave today! Sex trafficking for all,” said @BostonAtNite, adding the word “Parody” so you’d know it wasn’t real.

Not surprisingly, the Phoenix folks are not amused.  “[Editor at large Peter] Kadzis said the Phoenix has complained to Twitter about the account and is trying to get it taken down. ‘Any sick (bleep) can sign up for a Twitter handle,’ Kadzis said. ‘My prediction — and it’s probably true — is that there’s a connection to a rival publication.'”

As in the Weekly Dig, whose publisher Jeff Lawrence, the Track Gals (and Megan!) point out, just happens to be one of the whopping 19 tweeps who follow @BostonAtNite.

Fun for the whole family! Except for the X-rated part, of course.

 

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The Herald Warrens a Look Today

September 18, 2012

Our feisty local tabloid wins the Massachusetts U.S. Senate bakeoff today, with the old  good news/bad news combo platter for Elizabeth Warren.

Bad first: John McCain gives Warren the tomahawk chop  in this piece:

John McCain: Elizabeth Warren’s indian claims ‘bizarre’

U.S. Sen. John McCain — who endorsed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown this weekend — poked fun at Elizabeth Warren’s claim to a Native American heritage in an interview yesterday, saying he found it both amusing and strange.

“I’m entertained. I just think it’s bizarre,” McCain said of Warren’s purported Cherokee and Delaware tribal roots. “I know lots and lots of Native Americans, they have a very huge presence in my state and I’ve yet to meet one of them who claims to be related to Elizabeth Warren.”

Well, that settles that, doesn’t it?

On the other hand,  this piece has to be music to Warren’s ears.

Former Boston bigs: Menino’s Elizabeth Warren endorsement coming soon

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has yet to throw his political might behind Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren — despite the Harvard professor being on the brink of crucial televised debates — but City Hall observers predict an endorsement is imminent.

“I’m sure he’s going to endorse her,” said former Hub Mayor Ray Flynn, who has endorsed U.S. Sen. Scott Brown in the heated race. “I think he’s with her 100 percent. His people are with her. I think it’s just a question of the timing that is the most beneficial, politically, to her.”

Menino was unavailable for comment yesterday but his spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, said: “The mayor remains focused on the business of the city. He will make his political endorsements when he believes the time is right.”

Yeah, can’t wait for the Mayah of Denmahk to be – or not to be – involved in this campaign.

Meanwhile, crosstown at the Globe this editorial calls on Menino to just quit dithering. (It also plays the Hamlet card, but the hardworking staff swears to you we wrote the above before reading the Globe piece.)

Let’s see if Menino knows a hawk from a handsaw.

 

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