It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town

It started with a report on NECN on Thursday, which both local dailies picked up for Friday’s editions.

Boston Globe Names:

Boston Herald Inside Track:

Wahlberg asks for clean slate

Dorchester-born Holly-wood heartthrob Mark Wahlberg is asking the state to wipe his record clean of a 26-year-old assault rap and other convictions, arguing that by “formally” forgiving his dark past, it could inspire troubled youths to turn their lives around.

The 43-year-old actor/producer/restaurateur served 45 days of a three-month sentence for an April 1988 crime he says he has spoken “openly and publicly about” during his rise to stardom.

With the request, filed Nov. 26, he’s asking the state to expunge it from his record, in part, so he could become “more active in law enforcement activities.”

Note: The Globe does not include the “reportedly left one of the victims blind in one eye” that the Herald does; the Herald does not include the racial slurs and the NECN credit that the Globe does.

Regardless, only one of them follows up on the story today.

The report by Maria Cramer and Nestor Ramos starts with the 1988 racial incident, but also includes this:

In a separate episode, some from a class that was harassed in 1986 by a group of teens that included Wahlberg were not impressed with his request for a pardon.

Mary Belmonte, the class teacher, remembered leading her terrified elementary school students down a side street to avoid the hail of rocks. “I’m sure he’s sincere and he wants to clear his name,” Belmonte said. “It would be nice if he could apologize and really own up to what he was.’’

Huh.

Curiously, today’s Globe piece also says nothing about Lam losing his sight in one eye.

Double huh.

But the Globe website does include an archive of its coverage of the allegations from 1988-2000. Well worth a look.