Boston Herald Touts Bulls–t Clinton/Trump Spy Story

February 18, 2022

This editorial cartoon yesterday in Boston’s faulty local tabloid went all in on the latest fever-swamp conspiracy mongering among right-wingnuts .

Not to get technical about it, but a) it wasn’t the Clinton campaign behind any monitoring, b) there was no spying on Trump, because c) whatever monitoring did (or did not) happen occurred when Barack Obama occupied the White House.

Some background from CNN’s Brian Stelter.

On Saturday night former President Donald Trump declared that he was the victim of a scandal “far greater” than Watergate. He called for criminal prosecutions and “reparations.” He said “in a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death.”

Trump’s statement made no sense – except to the Fox audience base that badly wants it to be true.

Four days later, Trump-aligned media outlets are still amplifying his bogus message far and wide and ranting about the circumstances of his 2016 election win over Hillary Clinton. Tuesday’s cover of the New York Post portrayed “HILLARY THE SPY.” The Wall Street Journal editorial page said “Trump really was spied on.” Fox hosts have called it a “bombshell” dozens of times.

One of those Fox News hosts, Jesse Watters, got fact-checked by PolitiFact, which arrived at this conclusion: “Durham’s filing never alleged what Watters falsely claimed: that Clinton paid hackers to spy on Donald Trump before and during his presidency, break into his computers, and then fraudulently frame him for colluding with Russia.”

But, as the Heraldniks might say, never let facts get in the way of a good cartoon.

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Is Adriana ‘Cohen Away’ from the Boston Herald?

December 6, 2016

Sharp-eyed readers of the feisty local tabloid might have noticed a few changes this week at Boston Herald Radio.

First, though, here’s what the lineup looked like as recently as last Friday.

 

screen-shot-2016-12-06-at-4-07-56-pm

 

And here’s the new one.

 

screen-shot-2016-12-06-at-4-06-50-pm

 

The change that jumped out at the hardreading staff was the shifting of Herald columnist Adriana Cohen from the daily 6 to 9 morning slot to an hourlong Wednesday gig at noon.

As Ernie Boch Jr. might say, step on down!

But the more we thought about it, the more we started to wonder if this might be a transitional move while Cohen waits for a spot in the Trump administration.

After all, Yo Adriana was one of the most reliable of Trumpkins during the 2016 presidential campaign, although she tragically failed to make The Daily Beast’s All-Star roster of “The Donald’s Army of Media-Hungry Cable News Boosters.”

Which doesn’t seem right since Cohen was willing to do stuff like this (starting around 1:22):

 

 

But that kind of smashmouth politics is just what Trump tends to reward, so don’t be surprised if Cohen drifts down to D.C. sometime after the first of the year.

(Hey – maybe she and Trump coatholder Howie Carr could room together!)

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Hark! The Herald! (Cohen After WashPost Edition)

May 11, 2016

From our Walt Whitman desk

Call it the fisty local tabloid, ’cause the punches are flyin’ today.

It all started with this Callum Borchers piece in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Pundits achieve cable-news stardom after converting into Donald Trump supporters

Screen Shot 2016-05-11 at 12.38.41 PM

Last summer, shortly after Donald Trump launched his angry missile of a campaign with that memorable remark about Mexicans and rapists, Kayleigh McEnany sounded like pretty much every other talking head on cable news.

“I think he said something very unartful, very inappropriate,” she told Don Lemon during a June 29 segment on “CNN Tonight.”

“I’m here to tell you, he’s not going to be anywhere near the top five,” McEnany added. “He’s not a serious contender within the Republican Party. And I think he made that pretty clear when the most important thing he said in his speech was, ‘I am rich, I am rich,’ repeatedly.”

Today, McEnany sounds very different — both from her earlier self and from better-known conservative commentators such as Karl Rove and S.E. Cupp, who remain highly critical of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. McEnany is now a staunch Trump supporter, a turnaround that has helped make the newly minted Harvard Law School graduate a rising star on CNN . . .

 

McEnany, Borchers writes, “is one of a small handful of commentators — including Jeffrey Lord, Scottie Nell Hughes, Adriana Cohen and Carl Higbie — who have made defending the real estate mogul their niche and in the process made themselves hot commodities.”

And hot under the collar, in Cohen’s case. The Boston Herald columnist fired back at Borchers in today’s edition.

D.C. hit job ignores facts

Post piece demeans female pundits who back Trump

If you want to see what the war on women looks like, you need look no further than The Washington Post.Screen Shot 2016-05-11 at 1.39.38 PM

To be more specific, the war on conservative women.

Because I have dared to write supportive opinion columns on Donald Trump, I was featured along with two other female commentators in a Post story that stated that I have “achieved cable-news stardom after converting” into a Donald Trump supporter, that I, along with the others, “have made defending the real estate mogul their niche and in the process made themselves hot commodities.”

 

Cohen says despite Borchers’ claim that she was an “occasional guest” on CNN, Fox News Channel, and Fox Business Network “before getting behind Trump,” she actually appeared on national TV and radio shows “at least 100 times over the past few years, long before writing columns backing Trump and his positions this February.”

Cohen does not, however, address this part of Borchers’ piece:

On March 25, during a live segment on CNN, [Cohen] brought up a National Enquirer story that alleged multiple extramarital affairs by Cruz — unsubstantiated rumors that the mainstream media had mostly ignored until then. As anchor Kate Bolduan shook her head, Cohen went a step further, asserting on live TV that fellow guest Amanda Carpenter, Cruz’s former communications director, had been identified as one of five mistresses.

 

Ouch.

One last point: As Cohen points out, some of the comments attached to Borchers’ piece are brutally misogynistic. But during this election season, that’s par for the course. Trump supporters or no.

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Herald Scribe Cohen Goes CNNuclear on Cruz Spox

March 26, 2016

The Boston Herald’s normally ignorable columnist Adriana (Trumpless GOP Can Kiss Me Goodbye) Cohen, who is almost as big a Trump Chump as her work husband Howie Carr, caused quite a rumpus on CNN yesterday when she went Chernobyl on Ted Cruziac Amanda Carpenter over his alleged extramarital affairs – including with Carpenter.

Via Mediaite:

Trumpkin Accuses Ex-Cruz Aide of Affair on CNN

Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 11.47.59 PM

A leading member of the Trump fan club derailed a CNN segment Friday afternoon by accusing former Ted Cruz spokeswoman Amanda Carpenter of having an affair with the Texan senator. Asked by CNN anchor Kate Bolduan whether she thinks Trump is “ready to move on” from sexualized attacks on Cruz’s wife, Boston Herald columnist Adriana Cohen responded: “Oh, absolutely I think we should move on. Where we should move to is The National Enquirer story that was reported that Ted Cruz has had affairs with five mistresses, including you’ve been named as well, Amanda.” An incensed Bolduan shot back: “I don’t think that’s ‘moving on’ at all.” Unfazed, Cohen repeated the allegation, and then pointedly asked Carpenter: “Will you denounce this story or will you confirm it?” Carpenter called the allegations “smut” and said they were “categorically false.”

 

First of all, Trumpkin?

Excellent!

Second of all, let’s go to the videotape.

 

 

Yow.

In today’s Herald, Cohen says . . . nothing.

But we have high hopes for tomorrow.

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Boston Papers Day Late on Donald Muslim Trumpus

September 19, 2015

From our To Know Trump desk

Amazingly, both Boston dailies missed the biggest Donald Trump news du jour yesterday.

First the story, via CNN.

Trump doesn’t challenge anti-Muslim questioner at event

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 1.59.48 AM

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump came under fire Friday morning for his handling of a question at a town hall about when the U.S. can “get rid” of Muslims, for failing to take issue with that premise and an assertion that President Barack Obama is Muslim.

Trump, who has shaken off several high-profile controversies that would have ended other presidential campaigns, faced an immediate backlash from advocacy groups, and members of his own party distanced themselves from the GOP front-runner. The incident recalls Trump’s 2011 quest to challenge Obama on where he was born, which ended with Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate. It also follows a debate performance Wednesday that garnered mixed reviews for the billionaire businessman.

“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims,” an unidentified man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire asked the mogul at a rally Thursday night. “You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”

A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, “We need this question. This is the first question.”

 

Clueless Boston Globe piece:

 

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 2.04.46 AM

 

No mention of Trump’s Muslim moment.

Clueless Boston Herald piece:

Trump slams Carly Fiorina’s business track record

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 2.14.30 AM

ROCHESTER, N.H. — Republican front-runner Donald Trump predicted that Carly Fiorina’s track record at both Hewlett-Packard and Lucent Technologies will eventually derail her White House hopes, during a town hall meeting here last night — signaling with repeated broadsides that the surging former executive might now pose his biggest threat.

“With Carly, she did a terrible job at Lucent,” Trump said. “She did a terrible, terrible, terrible job at Hewlett-Packard. Terrible job. Stories 
have been written that are legendary. … People are 
going to have to read this. 
I just don’t see how she can get over that hurdle.

“And then everyone says she made a good speech,” Trump added of Fiorina’s performance at Wednesday night’s GOP showdown. “I don’t get it. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. But at some point, people are going to see, and I think it’s going to be a pretty big roadblock for her.”

 

He doesn’t get it? No kidding.

Then again, the Herald didn’t get it either. It also had no menton of Trump’s Muslim moment.

So . . . today – catch up?

The stately local broadsheet offers up this Associated Press piece.

 

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 10.12.54 AM

 

Crosstown, the feisty local tabloid at least has its own piece by Chris Cassidy.

Hillary slams Trump for 
allowing ‘hateful’ rhetoric

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 10.19.28 AM

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — Hillary Clinton blasted billionaire real-estate mogul Donald Trump and tried to strike a more personal tone while rallying local Democrats last night, attempting to jump-start her stalled campaign as she is set to appear at 
the state’s party convention today.

Clinton slammed Trump yesterday for failing to refute a town-hall attendee’s assertion on Thursday night that President Obama is “not even an American” and that Muslims are “a problem in this country.”

 

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, the Globe does have this piece up on its website.

Day late, dolor short.

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CNN Thumbsucker Whacks Boston Globe Tsarnaev Coverage

December 17, 2013

Apparently it’s not just the Boston Herald that takes issue with the Boston Globe’s The Fall of the House of Tsarnaev.

CNN chinstroker Michael Welner does too.

On last night’s Piers Morgan Live (sorry – CNN’s kudzu-like website features only a half-assed blog for Morgan, perhaps because he’s in the ejector seat), Michael Welner – “forensic psychiatrist & Chair of The Forensic Panel, pioneer of forensic peer review & the Depravity Standard, examiner of precedent cases” whatever the hell that means – went off on the Globe, accusing it of humanizing the inhumane and providing inspiration for copycat killers.

(No video, because Morgan’s in the ejector and etc.)

But . . .

From @PiersMorganLive:

 

Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 11.52.06 PM

 

Who’s next to pile on the Globe?

Our money’s on Fox Newshound Bill O’Reilly.

Really.

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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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