Being Ed Davis

June 28, 2013

Police Commissioner Ed Davis has officially become a litmus test in Boston’s mayoral race.

It started with this piece in Wednesday’s Boston Herald:

STON1329.JPGConley promises to retain top cop

Puts feud with Davis behind him

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley yesterday vowed to keep Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis if elected mayor, as a rift between the two men appears to have ended.

“Commissioner Davis and I have had a very close working relationship for many years now. We are in constant communication anytime there are issues involving the public safety in Boston,” Conley told the Herald.

In the past, the DA and Davis have clashed over jurisdictional issues and strategies for dealing with Boston’s homicide rate.

 

That triggered this piece in Thursday’s Boston Globe (which credited the Herald for raising the subject):

Boghosian_11menino3_METHalf of hopefuls for mayor would retain Davis

Following the Boston Marathon bombings in April, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis was praised for his steady presence during the ordeal and regaled with an honorary degree. His name was even bandied about as a possible candidate for mayor.

Davis decided to sit it out, but his name has remained part of the race, with questions arising about whether he would keep his post under a new leader at City Hall.

Half of the 12 mayoral candidates contacted by the Globe Wednesday said they would ask him to stay on. Five would not commit to keeping him. One did not respond to the question.

 

(Interesting foreground/background contrast in the photos, yeah?)

Related Globe piece on the mayoral candidate breakdown:

Yes: Felix Arroyo, John Barros, Bill Walczak, Robert Consalvo, Martin Walsh, Dan Conley.

Still deciding: Charles Clemons Jr., John Connolly, Charlotte Golar Richie, Michael Ross, David James Wyatt.

Did not respond: Charles Yancey.

Yet to comment: Ed Davis.

Stay tuned.

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Marathon Bombing Memorial Advertisers Get More and More Obscure

April 29, 2013

In the two weeks since the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, we’ve seen a goodly number of tribute ads from the likes of Verizon, Bloomingdale’s, even the City of New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. But today’s installments come from, well, out of nowhere.

In the Boston Globe:

 

Picture 1

 

In the Boston Herald:

 

Picture 2

 

Yeah, that’s what we said. Who are these people?

Turns out Flying Cross is “[t]he leading authority in uniform systems with over 170 years’ experience outfitting the best—and toughest—customers. Serving with Distinction since 1842.”

Okaaaay.

And The Produce Connection “[services] over 200 different food service venues throughout New England, many of them for over 20 years now. Many of our customers have become our close friends as we’ve successfully worked to meet their needs every day with the same commitment.”

Okaaaay.

We gotta ask: Are the Marathon bombings turning into just another marketing opportunity? (10% of our next two columns donated to The One Fund Boston!!)

It’s sure starting to feel that way.

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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:

 

Picture 4

 

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):

 

Picture 5

 

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

 

Picture 3

 

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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Herald Revising History Again (Bombing Coverage Coverup II)

April 28, 2013

The Boston Herald continues to criticize news organizations that erroneously reported an arrest  two days after the Marathon bombings – without noting that the feisty local tabloid itself did exactly the same thing.

Exhibit A: The Herald’s Press Party webbcast on Friday, which the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider previously chronicled.

Exhibit B : Today’s op-ed by retired Heraldnik Guy Darst.

Always a new(s) way to blunder

Let’s not be too hard on the unfortunate John King and CNN for erroneously reporting in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing that a suspect had been arrested. The pressures of a 24/7 news cycle are nothing new to a special class of journalists who have worked under them for more than a century, reporters for the wire services. Some of their blunders are legendary — and instructive.

The leading wire service, the Associated Press, also reported an arrest just as King did.

 

Just as numerous news outlets – including the Herald – did. Handy referesher chart from the excellent Chart Girl:

ARREST_900

 

The Herald should grow up and take its lumps for inaccurate reporting, instead of compounding it with even more.

 

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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:

 

Picture 1

 

 

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

 

Picture 2

 

 

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

 

Picture 5

 

 

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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