Hark! The Herald! (Power of the Press Edition)

January 10, 2013

The feisty local tabloid has the self-promotion machine in overdrive today.

Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

MA_BH

 

And here’s the spread from pages 4 and 5:

Picture 2

 

Just for good measure, the Herald tosses an editorial (“Time for true reform”) and this Margery Eagan column into the mix:

062909rowlings077.jpgShocking! In Mass., they’re fixing a mess

Call it a shocker. A stunner. Another Massachusetts Miracle. Something you would never expect until Boston Harbor freezes over and 90 percent of our lawmakers have an “R” instead of a “D” next to their names.

Last year the Herald ran a series of stories detailing questionable unemployment claims filed by city and town workers. Yesterday, Gov. Deval Patrick announced reforms. And most everybody thinks Beacon Hill will actually OK those reforms — soon.

 

All thanks to the Herald, of course. Or so it seems.

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Barney Frank(enstein)

January 9, 2013

From our Call and Response desk

Yesterday a Boston Globe editorial called on Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint Barney Frank (D-I Love Me) to fill the interim U.S. Senate seat created by John Kerry’s departure for the State Department.

New Congress.JPEG-087bdPatrick should take Frank up on his Senate offer

‘DOES IT matter, in the case of Congressman Frank, what I would have preferred?” quipped Governor Patrick, after Barney Frank announced to the nation — on “Morning Joe,” no less — that he is seeking Patrick’s support for the four-month interim appointment to replace Senator John Kerry. Yes, Frank can be obnoxious, even to his friends. And as a retiring congressman who relishes the idea of never again going before the voters, he’s as unleashed as he ever has been. Washington, watch out.

But as Patrick acknowledged, Frank is an excellent candidate for interim senator. Choosing him would serve two important purposes. First, since he’s emphatically ruled out any future election, his selection would allow the voters to choose a permanent senator without having one of the candidates anointed by the governor. Second, he would be effective immediately as a senator, since he’s about as knowledgeable on federal budget issues as anyone in Congress. That’s crucial because budget cutting will be the prime agenda item for the next four months.

 

Paging Fannie Mae. Paging Ms. Fannie Mae.

Today Joe Fitzgerald responded in his Boston Herald column.

Andy Samberg Barney FrankBarney Frank’s wit dulled by peevish trait

Here’s why Barney Frank is no favorite at this address.

No, it’s got nothing to do with philosophical or lifestyle issues, because total agreement has never been the litmus test for admiring someone here; if it were, this writer would have spent his career surrounded by a very small circle of kindred spirits.

Indeed, Barney, of all polar opposites, should have been easy to admire here because of his mastery of the language and an agile mind that churned out memorable quips . . .

Barney had the stuff of a bon vivant, a hail fellow well met, a joy to be around. Instead he was too often an unpleasant sort, as if an anger festered within him just waiting for an excuse to be unleashed.

Even the Globe, in yesterday’s fawning editorial urging Gov. Deval Patrick to grant Barney’s wish for a four-month interim appointment as John Kerry’s successor, thought it necessary to note, “Yes, Frank can be obnoxious, even to his friends.”

Great. That’s just what’s needed in the nation’s capital right now, an obnoxious presence in an atmosphere where cordiality is desperately needed.

 

In a previous incarnation, the hardreading staff had occasional contact with Frank at the local public television station. Every time, he would walk in the door in full complaint – Why am I not on the set yet? I don’t have time to wait around. Are you going to hurry this up?

Our response tended to be, “Congressman, no one wants to get you out of here faster than us.”

Not sure that extends to the U.S. Senate, though.

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Herald More Frank About Barney

January 5, 2013

From our Compare and Contrast in Clear Idiomatic English desk

Barney Frank (D-I Love Me) gets Page One of the local dailies today, but in very – wait for it – different ways (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages).

Boston Globe:

MA_BG

 

Boston Herald:

MA_BH

 

The feisty local tabloid devotes two full pages to the Barney-burner, complete with Hall of Shame qualifications:

Picture 2

 

Note especially this:

Picture 3

 

Text:

A huge public policy blunder

During the beginning of the financial industry crisis, Frank defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from more government oversight, famously declaring the agencies “fundamentally sound.” We know how wrong that turned out to be.

 

Crosstown at the Globe, the coverage is more, well, restrained.

New Congress.JPEG-087bd-3155Barney Frank says he would like to be interim senator

On what should have been the first day of his retirement from Congress, former representative Barney Frank instead burst back onto the political scene, revealing that he had asked Governor Deval Patrick to appoint him to temporarily fill John Kerry’s Senate seat while a special election is held.

Frank said his 32 years in Congress made him especially qualified to help settle spending and entitlement fights that were pushed off several months by the New Year’s Eve fiscal cliff compromise between President Obama and congressional leaders.

“The first months of the new Senate will be among the most important in American history. I may be a little immodest, but I called the governor and said I think I can be a help in reaching a fair solution to some of these issues,” Frank told the Globe Friday.

 

Asked about running in the special election for the seat, Frank said “absolutely not.”

And does the Globe piece mention the Fannie/Freddie kerfuffle?

Absolutely not.

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Hark! The Herald Angles Sing!

December 11, 2012

While the Boston Globe is makes its Pulitzer push with a three-part megaseries about felonious illegal immigrants, the Boston Herald has been scooping up stories hither and yon.

From the feisty local tabloid’s Yon desk: yesterday’s Page One story on Gov. Patrick tolling the bell for Mass. Pike tollbooths.

11afbc_tollsplash_12102012Gov. Deval Patrick plans to take toll on toll takers

Gov. Deval Patrick is putting toll takers on notice and quietly moving forward with a pricey plan to install electronic tolling across the state, despite a budget crisis that’s triggering massive cuts in spending, the Herald Truth Squad has learned.

Patrick’s transportation officials inserted a new clause in a Nov. 21 union contract proposal, obtained by the Truth Squad, that gives the administration power to “have the unlimited right … to eliminate manual toll collection” on all Massachusetts highways.

 

Both Patrick and the Globe gave the Herald a shoutout today (although the paragraph-eight mention in the Globe was more like a whisperout).

From the feisty local tabloid’s Hither desk comes this scoop:

849694_010307radionl02A possible switch to music is all the talk around WTKK

Keep your ears tuned for some big changes at WTKK-FM (96.9).

WTKK NewsTalk owner Greater Media could soon be switching back to all-music because, experts said, “toxic” all-talk formats aren’t attracting enough younger listeners.

Speculation about a format shift reached a fever pitch yesterday when news broke that Internet domain names such as 969Bostons Beat.com, 969TheBeat.com, and Power969 had been gobbled up.

 

Not good news at all, at least from our standpoint.  (Full disclosure: The hardyakking staff does a turn every Friday morning on the Jim & Margery show.)

Others, however – like the redoubtable Dan Kennedy – would disagree.

UPDATE: Dan writes, “I specifically said I hope J&M land elsewhere — you make it sound like I’ll be glad when they’re gone.”

Sorry – that was entirely unintentional. It’s the rest of that lot he won’t miss.

Dan also adds this:

“Some scoop for the Herald, eh? That’s what I thought until this got posted [on Media Nation ].”

Sorted.

Sorta.

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Dearth and Taxes

November 26, 2012

Two – wait for it – very different takes on Taxachusetts in today’s local dailies.

Start with this glass-half-empty front-page piece in the Boston Globe:

Mass. tax revenues decline; budget trims loom

Looks for ways to curb spending; automatic cut in taxes ruled out

Facing weaker than expected state tax revenues, Governor Deval Patrick’s administration has curbed state hiring, halted an automatic income tax reduction, and begun identifying cuts in spending that may be necessary to balance the budget.

Recent tax collections have been unexpectedly disappointing, failing to measure up to last year’s levels. In October, revenues were $162 million short of budgetary estimates and $48 million below the level reached in October 2011.

State revenues are running $256 million behind budget and $33 million behind last year’s actual collection, officials said.

Cut to Ho-Ho-Holly Robichaud’s column in today’s Boston Herald:

Dems think state loses if you save $$

The never-ending saga of Taxachusetts is coming to our wallets soon.

Whether or not there is a need for more revenue, the fundamental problem is that Democrats have a delusional view about our money. They believe what we don’t pay in taxes is an expenditure on behalf of the state.

Hence, it is costing Bacon Hill tax dollars because we keep more of our savings and paychecks.

A bit tortured there, but emblematic of the glass-stolen-by-the-state school of politics.

See you when there’s a tiebreaker.

 

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Herald Scoops Globe on Mass. Dem Shenanigans

November 24, 2012

Special election rules in Massachusetts are the Silly Putty of legislation, taking whatever shape best suits the Democratic majority at the time.

Back in 2004, they eliminated a governor’s power to appoint replacements for U.S. Senate vacancies, the better to keep then-Gov. Mitt Romney’s mitts off John Kerry’s seat should he win the presidency. When one of their own returned to the corner office, state lawmakers gave back the power to appoint a temporary replacement.

Now they apparently want to give Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint a permanent replacement to serve out an interrupted term, the Boston Herald’s Hillary Chabot reports:

Whispers build of change to special election rules

Power-hungry Bay State Democrats — eyeing another potential Senate opening if U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry joins the Obama Cabinet— are quietly discussing reinstating a 2004 law that would let Gov. Deval Patrick appoint a permanent replacement to help keep the seat under party control until at least 2014.

“I think that would be preferable. It would certainly save the taxpayers money if they don’t have to pay for another election,” said Phil Johnston, former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

“I think people are campaigned out. I think the governor is very popular and most voters would be happy to support his choice until the next general election,” Johnston added.

Not if the voters are David Bernstein, the intrepid political maven at the Phoenix. Here’s what he tweeted earlier today:

If history is any guide, shame will be the least important factor going forward.

 

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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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Charlotte Web Edition

September 4, 2012

The local dailies are running true to form in their coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Boston Globe: Dutiful.

Boston Herald: Gleeful (and bountiful).

The Globe’s ramp-up to the convention in Monday’s edition:

Charlotte offers promise, pitfalls for Democrats

Democrats to play up foreign policy

Obama defends health care law

Biden says Romney too eager for war

 

Bonus points:

Union’s political power fading

 

The Herald’s ramp-up yesterday:

Gov Missing in Mass. But Finds Spotlight in N.C.

Media get VIP treatment in N.C.

Delegates vow to get down to business . . . after a little chill time

GOP pundits: Bay State liberals’ barbs really a ‘badge of honor’

For Liz, it’s personal

 

The Herald also features scattered “You Said It” reader comments, a DNC Charlotte Notebook,  and Brown’s Take, the bookend to last week’s Warren’s Take (sample here) at the GOP convention.

Advantage: Herald.

So far.

 

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Herald Whoopie Gold Edition

August 17, 2012

This week the Boston Herald has been making whoopie pies a major issue, and the results have been sweet for the feisty local tabloid.

It started with this front page on Wednesday:

Lede of the cover story:

A Walpole baker — appalled that welfare abuse now seems almost as American as apple pie — is putting her whoopie pies where her mouth is in a dispute with the Braintree Farmers Market, refusing to take EBT cards for her baked treats.

I don’t think American taxpayers should be footing the bill for people’s pie purchases,” said Andrea Taber, proprietor of the Ever So Humble Pie Co. in Walpole, who peddles her wares at the Braintree market on Fridays and now finds herself in the middle of the state’s raging fight over welfare benefits.

“To me it’s no different than nail salons and Lottery tickets,” Taber said. “It’s pastry, it’s dessert. My pies are great, but come on.”

So the Herald went on, devoting two full pages to the story yesterday – one of them a sampling of reader reactions like these:

“Let’s make a statement by making her a national symbol and a millionaire for standing up to the welfare-government industrial complex!” — libertytree

“Even poor children deserve a treat.” —sailor21

“We need a few thousand more just like her and our country will be back on the right track.” — davejss

“Your missing the point entirely …WE are buying the pies, NOT the welfare lay-a-bout. Get it?” — Wesley_Mouch2

“Sure I get it, we are also ‘buying’ the wars, the Wall St. bailout the tax breaks for the uber wealthy, and many many many many other things that are a lot more pressing and expensive than a whoopie pie, you get it ?” — RatzoRizzo

There was also the obligatory Howie Carr drive-by, and a story about the previous day’s story:

Baker story causes stir on the Internet

A Walpole baker’s controversial refusal to take EBT card payments for her gourmet pastries exploded into the national spotlight yesterday, as her whoopie pie fight with a local farmers market emerged as the latest battle in the growing welfare policy war.

The Herald’s report on Andrea Taber’s dispute with the Braintree Farmers Market, which wants her to accept tokens paid for with EBT cards for her baked goods, was read online by more than 250,000 people nationwide, garnering more than 750 comments. It made the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, and was picked up by The Drudge Report, Fark.com, Reddit.com, Lucianne.com and Freerepublic.com. She is due to appear on Fox and Friends and Neil Cavuto’s Your World today. She fielded calls from talk shows all day.

“My email is just incinerated,” Taber said. “Ninety-five percent of it is positive. There is a fair amount of venom coming my way.”

Today’s Herald features Gov. Deval Patrick dodging the issue, the Herald editors flogging it:

Whoopie for courage

Just once wouldn’t it be wonderful if bureaucrats applied a small dose of common sense from time to time.

Case in point: Andrea Taber, owner of Ever So Humble Pie Co., has taken a principled stance and chooses not to sell her whoopie pies and other pastries to those presenting SNAP vouchers at her stand at the Braintree Farmers Market. Now she faces possible eviction from her market stall.

“I don’t think American taxpayers should be footing the bill for people’s pie purchases,” Taber told the Herald.

Whoopie for courage?

Easy as pie for the feisty local tabloid.

 

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Herald Foursome Whacks Warren Edition

August 9, 2012

The Boston Herald has sunk its teeth into the EBT Voter Push story and is taking bigger bites every day. Yesterday the feisty local tabloid ran three pieces (to the Globe’s none in its print edition). Today the Herald has upped the ante to four.

The beauty of this story, of course, it that’s its a twofer for the Herald: They get to rough up the welfare layabouts while inflicting maximum collateral damage to Elizabeth Warren, the paper’s particular bête noire.

Today’s edition kicks off with Warren on the defensive:

Elizabeth Warren: Nothing fishy about my kid’s role in EBT campaign

Elizabeth Warren scoffed at U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s charges that her daughter is leading a taxpayer-funded crusade to get welfare recipients out to vote for her mom, even as records show the Democrat scored thousands in campaign dough from the group’s bigwigs — including a former Boston Globe publisher.

“The organization that Amelia’s involved in was working on voter registration issues I believe before she ever joined,” Warren said. “And they were working in several different states, they’re working with other organizations and they were working with the commonwealth of Massachusetts before I ever became involved in the campaign.”

There’s also a backgrounder on Demos, the group organizing the campaign. And what would a pig pile be without the smooth stylings of Howie Carr?

It’s not enough that Granny Warren, the fake Indian, is raising more campaign cash from the Beautiful People and, yes, the machine, than any congressional candidate in the country. Now Brown has to contend with campaign mailings from the Department of Transitional Assistance, i.e., welfare, paid for by money extracted from the taxpayers — his voters.

Oh, yes – just for good measure, the paper tossed in an editorial:

A true voting scam

Ah, yes, we can hear the governor once again blaming the Herald for “making sure you’re angry” with yesterday’s front page story on how nearly $300,000 of your tax dollars will be spent to tell welfare recipients how to register to vote.

That the national voter registration effort is led by a left-leaning group whose board is chaired by Amelia Warren Tyagi, daughter of Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is, well, just one of those funny political coincidences — no?

And etc.

Meanwhile, the crosstown rival Globe ran its story – an expanded version of what the paper posted yesterday afternoon on its website – front page above the fold. The broadshet also ran this chinstroker about  the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s “aggressive effort to expand upon and invigorate the grassroots organization that propelled Deval Patrick to two terms as governor after 16 consecutive years of GOP control over the Corner Office.”

We’ll see tomorrow who makes an aggressive effort to expand upon and invigorate the voter registration story. We’re laying plenty of eight-to-five it’s the Herald.

 

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