So, to recap for the umpteenth- hell, just see here.
The question is this: How did Marty’s Mash Note to the Boston Public Schools wind up as a full-page ad in last Wednesday’s Boston Globe?
On Friday, CommonWealth Magazine (which came late – but smart – to the party) reported the issue thusly:
THE BOSTON GLOBE FOUNDATION donated a full-page ad in Wednesday’s newspaper to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh so he could thank the staff of the Boston Public Schools at the close of the school year.
Ellen Clegg, who heads the foundation, said the mayor personally asked Globe CEO Mike Sheehan for the ad space and the foundation provided it because the message was in keeping with the organization’s focus on education and literacy.
But Ms. Clegg had previously told the hardreading staff this:
The Globe Foundation donated the ad to the Boston Public Schools pro bono, as a public service. When we get a request for support from organizations that fit the Foundation’s mission, we work with the Globe’s advertising department to donate pro bono print ads in space that would normally go to unpaid “house ads.” It’s a great way to engage with the community. Other recent examples of pro bono ads include the One Fund and the MLK Summer Scholars Program, which the Foundation co-sponsors with John Hancock.
C’mon – “[donating] an ad to the Boston Public Schools pro bono” and kowtowing to the mayor of Boston aren’t even in the same zip code.
Regardless, Ms. Clegg perpetuated the split decision yesterday in these post-CommonWealth answers to our pre-CommonWealth questions, which took her initial explanation at face value:
• When you donated the ad to the Boston Public Schools, did you know it would take the form of a letter from Mayor Walsh?
Yes.
• Who did the creative/production of the ad?
The Globe’s advertising department.
• Given the ad’s content, did you have any concerns that it would appear you donated the ad to Mayor Walsh, raising questions about the appearance of compromising the Globe’s arm’s-length relationship with him?
The Globe’s newsroom is independent from the business side of the organization, and from the Globe Foundation, and had no involvement here.
I’m sure you’ve seen the newsroom’s recent scrub of Mayor Walsh’s hiring record (link below). I have confidence that our journalists will continue to scrutinize public officials and powerful institutions, including City Hall.
Frankly, we’re more interested in scrubbing Ms. Clegg’s record of telling the hardreading staff one thing and CommonWealth another.
From the start of John Henry’s dual ownership of the Boston GlobeSox, the paper pretty consistently ignored conflicts of interest in his business dealings with the Menino administration (see here and here). If Henry is now dancing to Marty Walsh’s tune, he should own up to that, too.
Last Wednesday, this full-page ad appeared in the Boston Globe:
That got the headscratching staff to wondering who paid for Marty’s Mash Note to the Boston Public Schools. So we sent a note to the Boston Globe Foundation (see lower left in the ad) asking just that: Did Mayor Walsh (read: Boston taxpayers) foot the bill? Did the Globe Foundation? Did no one?
And here’s what Globe lifer Ellen Clegg replied:
The Globe Foundation donated the ad to the Boston Public Schools pro bono, as a public service. When we get a request for support from organizations that fit the Foundation’s mission, we work with the Globe’s advertising department to donate pro bono print ads in space that would normally go to unpaid “house ads.” It’s a great way to engage with the community. Other recent examples of pro bono ads include the One Fund and the MLK Summer Scholars Program, which the Foundation co-sponsors with John Hancock.
(The hardquizzing staff followed up with an email that asked Ms. Clegg these questions: 1) When you donated the ad to the Boston Public Schools, did you know it would take the form of a letter from Mayor Walsh? 2) Who did the creative/production of the ad? 3) Given the ad’s content, did you have any concerns that it would look like you donated the ad not to the BPS but to Mayor Walsh, appearing to compromise the Globe’s arm’s-length relationship with him?
(We have yet to hear back.)
Meanwhile, as the redoubtable Dan Kennedy pointed out to us, the redoubtable Dan Kennedy pointed us to this piece in Commonwealth Magazine, where it seems to us Ms. Clegg told a very different story to CommonWealth Magazine (which, frankly, came late to the party):
Globe Foundation gives full-page ad to Walsh
Mayor approached CEO Sheehan for space
THE BOSTON GLOBE FOUNDATION donated a full-page ad in Wednesday’s newspaper to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh so he could thank the staff of the Boston Public Schools at the close of the school year.
Ellen Clegg, who heads the foundation, said the mayor personally asked Globe CEO Mike Sheehan for the ad space and the foundation provided it because the message was in keeping with the organization’s focus on education and literacy.
Yes, well, Ms. Clegg might want to focus on her own message(s). Clearly, she gave us a mere bag of shells.
The hardreading staff will call Ms. Clegg tomorrow and try to clarify all this, because turning your newspaper into a mayoral Make a Wish fund is a lot different from “donating an ad to the Boston Public Schools.”
On Wednesday, this full-page ad appeared in the Boston Globe:
That got the headscratching staff to wonder, Who picked up the tab for Marty’s Mash Note to the Boston Public Schools?
So we sent a note to the Boston Globe Foundation, whose logo appears lower left, asking if they could tell us if Mayor Walsh (read: Boston taxpayers) paid for the ad space or the Globe Foundation did or if any money changed hands at all.
And here’s the reply we received from Globe stalwart Ellen Clegg:
The Globe Foundation donated the ad to the Boston Public Schools pro bono, as a public service. When we get a request for support from organizations that fit the Foundation’s mission, we work with the Globe’s advertising department to donate pro bono print ads in space that would normally go to unpaid “house ads.” It’s a great way to engage with the community. Other recent examples of pro bono ads include the One Fund and the MLK Summer Scholars Program, which the Foundation co-sponsors with John Hancock.
Ms. Clegg graciously offered to talk with the hardquizzing staff and we have a call in to her.
As the hardreading staff has noted on numerous occasions, the relationship between Boston Globe/Red Sox owner John Henry and the City of Boston (read: Tom Menino) over the past several years became increasingly – and profitably – chummy, from Landsdowne Street air rights to Fenway Franks.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has always struck the hardreading staff as deep-down a Boston Herald kind of guy. But you can’t tell by looking at the local dailies today.
Boston Globe, Page 9:
Boston Herald: Nada thing.
Of course this logo lower left in the ad might explain that.
Subsequently, the headscratching staff sent this email to the Boston Globe Foundation:
I produce the website It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town and I read with interest Mayor Walsh’s full-page ad in today’s Globe. I also noticed that the Boston Globe Foundation logo was included lower left.
Can you tell me if Mayor Walsh paid for the ad space? Or if the Boston Globe Foundation did? Or if any money changed hands at all?
When I got to chat briefly with Linda [Pizzuti, Henry’s wife] after the Chamber breakfast, she described her role at the paper as “evolving.” Is there any greater sense of what exactly her role will be yet?
Linda is fully engaged working on important issues for the Boston Globe. She is leading initiatives to activate our subscriber base connecting the Globe to the community. She is heading up the Boston Globe Foundation. And she serves on a number of internal committees that deal with real estate, circulation, social media and other business issues.
She was the driving force behind our recently launched Globe GRANT program, which gave our subscribers vouchers they are assigning to non-profit organizations for advertising space in the Boston Globe. This program has been very warmly received by charitable organizations and subscribers.
(Henry also writes in the exchange, “Mike [Barnicle] knows everyone worth knowing.” Huh.)
Anyway, we’re hoping to hear from the stately local broadsheet’s stately local do-gooders.
Did Marty Walsh (read: Boston taxpayers) pay for yesterday’s full-page ad? Did Linda Pizzuti? Mike Barnicle? Nobody?
On Friday Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced a long-overdue overhaul of the Jurassic Boston Redevelopment Authority, which Saturday’s edition of the feisty local tabloid reported with a big shootout to itself.
BRA housecleaning gets rave reviews
Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s surprise shake-up of the Boston Redevelopment Authority — a move that saw its business development arm and 14 staffers axed — was hailed by critics as the first step in a long overdue overhaul of an agency notorious for its cronyism and backroom deals.
“We are at a point with the BRA where any changes would be positive. I think things at the BRA have operated in the shadows for far too long,” said Matt Cahill, head of the Boston Finance Commission, a watchdog agency. “It appears that Mayor Walsh is trying to increase transparency and the public’s knowledge of what’s going on there.”
While the moves — first reported yesterday on boston herald.com — don’t go as far as Walsh’s campaign pledge to dismantle the BRA entirely, they are part of his overall strategy to shift economic development away from the independent authority and under the umbrella of a City Hall department that reports directly to the mayor.
Of course, considering that bostonherald.com is the Lindsay Lohan of websites, it’s impossible to verify the paper’s “first reported yesterday” claim.
But we can verify this: The Boston Globe, which is generally not shy about crediting the Herald when it scoops the stately local broadsheet, did not cite the Herald in itsSaturday piece.
The Boston Red Sox are engaged in yet another Fenway land grab, as the Boston Herald noted on Saturday.
Fenway franks to go?
Sox seek OK to sell food during non-ballpark hours
It appears Red Sox Nation can’t get enough of Fenway franks.
The team is seeking city approval for a takeout concession on Lansdowne Street, near Gate C, that would be open during non-ballpark hours.
“It would be located within the ballpark in a space next to the WEEI broadcast booth,” Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran said. “It’s a new, small concession stand that would have its own entry door off of Lansdowne Street” . . .
The team’s takeout concept is the latest in a string of non-baseball game money-makers designed to make the most of America’s oldest ballpark, which Red Sox owner John Henry this week said has a shelf life of another 30 years.
The Boston Globe, as the hardreading staff has noted, did not cover this story on Saturday. Or Sunday. Or today.
The stately local broadsheet did, however, report on that 30-year shelf life of Fenway Park.
John Henry says Fenway Park has 30 more years of life
FORT MYERS, Fla. — There is an expiration date on Fenway Park, Red Sox principal owner John Henry said on Wednesday. But it won’t come due for another 30 years or so.
The oldest ballpark in the majors is structurally sound and the only improvements left to make would be to renovate the press box and other areas in the upper section behind home plate.
“You won’t see major changes. Those, I think, have been explored, thought about and accomplished,” Henry said. “Structurally there is an expiration date. Someone at some point in decades ahead will have to address the possibility of a new ballpark.”
Yes, and someone should have addressed Henry’s ownership of the Boston Globe in that sunny-side-up piece last week.
But no one did.
That’s two strikes in one week. Not exactly encouraging.
Last Thursday, the Boston Globe ran this Page One piece by its highly respected architectural critic Robert Campbell.
For urban design, Menino era scores highs and lows
In his 20-plus years in office, Mayor Thomas M. Menino began as the healer of Boston’s neighborhoods. Over time, he morphed into the commander of downtown development.
Of course I’m simplifying. But I think that’s the short story people will remember about this mayor and his impact on the architecture of the city . . .
The mayor was involved in virtually every decision about architecture and urban design during his tenure. He wasn’t a visionary thinker, nor was he strong on aesthetics. But he was a master of detail who always seemed to know everything that was happening. He won’t be remembered for any single grand urban gesture. Instead, he presided over a multiplicity of lesser projects that, taken together, have changed the face of the city.
For better and for worse, as Campbell’s piece makes clear.
Then yesterday, the stately local broadsheet ran this Page One piece (dead-tree edition headline).
Skyline bears his distinctive signature
Impact of Menino’s development calls still unfolding
When Mayor Thomas M. Menino took office in 1993, Boston’s downtown was in the grip of a recession. Construction had slowed to a crawl, retailers were struggling, and the elevated Central Artery still spewed exhaust onto a waterfront that was more gritty than glitzy.
Then, an improbable chain of events unfolded: The Big Dig, massive cost overruns and all, replaced the rusting steel of the artery with a series of parks; people and new stores began moving back into the city’s core; and developers created bold plans for North Station, Downtown Crossing, and the South Boston waterfront.
Today, those sparks of renewal are exploding in a historic spate of development, with more than 5,700 homes under construction and huge office, retail, and housing complexes rising from the South Boston Innovation District to Dudley Square. While he was not directly responsible for all of those projects, Menino played a central role in rebuilding a city that is now among the world’s top markets for real estate investment.
Exhibit Umpteen: Yesterday’s front pages of the local dailies.
Boston Herald:
Boston Globe:
Call the roll: Three major stories on Page One of the Globe (BRA, Pope Francis, Revere casino) vs. zero major stories on the Herald’s Page One. (To be fair, the feisty local tabloid did make news inside with this Foxy Lady strip club, er, bust.)
So it’s no contest on the issue of content.
More important, though – without the Boston Herald, the Globe is Roger Federer pre-Rafael Nadal: A dominant force with no worthy rival to really challenge it (Federer won Wimbledon in 2003 against Mark Philip-friggin’-poussis for God’s sake).
So once again: We’re lucky to live in a two-daily town.
The feisty local tabloid’s real-estate crusade continues today, with two full pages dedicated to ripping the lid off Mayor Tom Menino and his Boston Redevelopment Authority marionettes.
Of special note is this whack at one BRA member in particular (if you guessed that he has union ties, vote yourself a special treat).
BRA defends decision to OK Monahan vote
Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s newest appointee to the BRA board failed to recuse himself when the panel voted to approve a massive downtown development project largely funded by his union’s national pension fund.
Boston Redevelopment Authority officials yesterday defended union boss Michael Monahan’s vote to OK the Government Center Garage development plan, which won unanimous approval at the board’s Thursday meeting.
Monahan is the business manager of the 7,000-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 and a trustee of its pension fund, one of the largest contributors to the National Electrical Benefit Fund. The national fund is a big financial backer of the project.
Right. More shenanigans on the development front.
And no doubt developing . . .
Postscript from our JohnHenryGlobeWatch: Today’s edition of our stately local broadsheet did cover that Yawkey Way sweetheart deal the Herald covered yesterday. So, move along, move along – no conspiracies to see here.
The Boston Herald is on a real-estate BRAmpage lately, starting with Wednesday’s hounding of Terrier-in-waiting Tom Menino over possible conflicts of interest between the outgoing mayor’s new gig at Boston University and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, 80% of which is appointed by the mayor.
Today the feisty local tabloid is still beating the Tom-toms.
Inside, the Herald calls the roll of tax-dodging prime downtown properties.
But wait! There’s more – a new skirmish outside Fenway Park.
BRA sued over no-bid deal with Sox on Yawkey Way
A sweetheart land and air rights deal between the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Red Sox is now being attacked in court.
Everett businessman and attorney Joseph Marchese is suing the BRA over the recent $7.3 million agreement that awarded the Red Sox air rights for Green Monster seats over Lansdowne Street and an easement to shut down part of Yawkey Way for concessions so long as the team plays at Fenway Park.
Marchese said he had approached the BRA in May with his own offer to operate concessions on Yawkey Way under a proposed $3 million, 10-year deal, but the BRA never put the rights out for public bid.
“What we’re asking the court to determine is whether or not that contract should have been put out to bid,” Marchese said. A former restaurant owner, Marchese said he wanted to partner with local businesses to offer food on Yawkey Way in a “taste of Boston” atmosphere.
Then again, the sweetheart deal is a taste of Boston, isn’t it?
Postscript from our JohnHenryGlobeWatch: Nothing about the Fenway rumpus in the Red-Sox-owner-Henry-owned Boston Globe today. No big conspiracy theory. That comes tomorrow.
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 