Boston Dailies Are #NotAfraid

January 8, 2015

As the hardreading staff has noted on numerous occasions, Boston is lucky to be not just a Two-Daily Town, but a Two-Cartoonist Town as well.

The Boston Herald starts with this front page:

 

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Inside, Jerry Holbert has this to offer:

 

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Crosstown, the Boston Globe’s Dan Wasserman gets a big chunk of the editorial page:

 

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Cartoonist Ted Rall points this out at The Nib:

More full-time staff political cartoonists were killed in Paris yesterday than are employed at newspapers in the states of California, Texas and New York combined.

More full-time staff cartoonists were killed in Paris yesterday than work at all American magazines and websites combined.

 

Count your blessings, Boston. In more ways than one.


Boston Editorial Cartoonists Draw Different Lessons From Ferguson

November 27, 2014

As the hardreading staff has relentlessly noted, it’s good to live in a Two-Cartoonist Town. Wednesday’s local dailies are just the latest example.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Wasserman:

 

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The Boston Herald’s Jerry Holbert:

 

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That about sums it up, yeah?


Tom Menino, the Cartoon Version

October 31, 2014

As we have noted on numerous occasions, Boston is lucky to be not only a two-daily town, but a two-cartoonist town as well.

And both weigh in on the death of former Mayor Tom Menino in similar style today.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Wasserman:

 

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The Boston Herald’s Jerry Holbert:

 

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Two for the road, yes?


Herald’s Holbert Lines Up Boston Globe

February 21, 2014

As the hardreading staff has said on several occasions, not only is Boston blessed with two daily newspapers, but both dailies are blessed with talented editorial cartoonists – Dan Wasserman at the Globe and Jerry Holbert at the Herald.

(Yesyes – Wasserman is technically a syndicated columnist, not a Globe staffer, but he still seems like a member of the family.)

As we’ve noted previously:

Unfortunately, editorial cartoonists are fast becoming an endangered species.

From the American Journalism Review: “Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, says there are fewer than 100 staff cartoonists in the country, down from about 150 in 1990 and about 280 in 1980.”

 

So . . . back to the present. In today’s edition of the feisty local tabloid Holbert has this followup to yesterday’s Globe/Herald/Scott Brown slapfight over his status as a Fox Newshound.

 

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For the record, Brown has re-upped with Fox News. And, as far as we know, has nothing nice to say about the Globe.

But more important: Want a piece of this, Mr. Wasserman?

We certainly hope so.

 


Herald Devalues Patrick Speech

January 29, 2014

Last night Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Lame Duck Dynasty) delivered his last State of the Commonwealth speech, and today’s Boston Herald is on it like Brown on Williamson.

Start, quite naturally, on Page One:

 

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Inside, the Gov guff spreads across two pages (and a warm Two-Daily Town welcome back to the entirely random Little Green 1!).

 

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Howie Carr’s column features his usual mail-in mutterings, while Joe Battenfeld’s piece begins “There is no ‘I’ in team, but there definitely is one in Patrick.” (As my brother Bob says, there may be no I in team, but there is Eat Me.)

Then there’s the obligatory tsk-tsking editorial, and an editorial cartoon from the ever-clever Jerry Holbert.

 

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Combined, it’s a Full Herald, the journalistic equivalent of a Full Newark (white necktie, white belt, white shoes).

Attention-getting, but tough to look at for too long.

 


WGBH Herald Hostage, Day 4 (Part 2)

October 11, 2013

The hardreading staff didn’t know the half of it in its earlier post this morning. Also in today’s Boston Herald, a handful of other shoutouts in the WGBH/David Koch rumpus.

Working our way through the opinion pages from left to right, start with this editorial:

Going cuckoo on Koch

Perhaps we should be accustomed to the lunatic fringe making comparisons between conservatives and, say, the Ku Klux Klan. We confess it’s a bit surprising when a man of the cloth engages in the odious practice, but hey, when it comes to protecting Mother Earth all bets are off!

 

Segue smoothly to Jerry Holbert’s editorial cartoon:

 

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Toss in a couple of Letters to the Editor:

Opposing views silenced

Just because protesters disagree with David Koch is no reason to shut him down and have him removed from the WGBH board (“Tough climate as WGBH faces protest over board member,” Oct. 10). That’s even if protesters do think they are scientifically correct about climate change, despite the fact that the issue is still being debated and researched and there is no unanimity on it in the scientific community.

A protester is quoted as saying of Koch, “His presence is extremely offensive. People who are actively fighting to destroy the climate should not have equal political voice.” The whole point of free speech in a democracy is so all sides may be heard.

I even support the protesters’ right to make statements that I believe are strident, hysterical and inaccurate. But to be “offended” by someone’s “presence” just because they disagree with you and to demand that their rights be abrogated is a far greater offense.

— Jeffrey Miner, Belmont

 

Raise the heat on Koch

There is profound irony in the use of the word “heat” in your headline about the grassroots movement to encourage WGBH to sever ties with pollution powerbroker David Koch (“Activists put heat on WGBH to oust donor, board giant,” Oct. 3). Thanks to Koch’s relentless assault on regulations to combat heat-trapping carbon emissions, we are on the verge of a climate cliff far more hazardous than any economic “fiscal cliff.”

Just as Boston will be underwater if we don’t get serious about reducing emissions, WGBH’s credibility will be underwater if the station doesn’t wash its hands of a man whose actions and statements on science contradict the station’s mission of educating and informing the public.

— D. R. Tucker, Brockton

 

And finish off Kochapalooza with a Michael Graham column:

Koch’s cash trash to libs

David Koch has a lot to learn about tolerance and diversity.

Koch, as every Occupod knows, is one of the infamous Koch Brothers (pronounced “coke,” as in “short for cocaine,’’ as in “white things that kill people!”). The Kochs are, well, they’re just the most dangerous, hateful and awful people in America. They regularly (and hatefully) give away millions of dollars to hospitals, universities, think tanks and, yes, public television.David Koch

Specifically, David Koch has given $18 million to support the science show “NOVA” and he sits on the WGBH board.

Liberals are demanding that he be thrown off the board over his political views.

In the name of tolerance and diversity, of course.

 

And just think: We still have the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider’s Beat the Press Party Bakeoff to look forward to.

 

 

 


Is the Herald’s Jerry Holbert Clipping the Globe’s Dan Wasserman?

August 13, 2013

First off, let’s stipulate – as they say on Law & Order – that Boston is lucky to be not only a Two-Daily Town, but also a Two-Editorial-Cartoonist Town.

And we have a couple of really good ones – Jerry Holbert at the Boston Herald and Dan Wasserman at the Boston Globe.

Both of whom, as the hardreading staff noted recently, have waded into the Anthony Weiner rumpus down in the Big Town.

In Thursday’s editions, the two coincidentally visited Six Flags Over Anthony Weiner.

Holbert:

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Wasserman:

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Now comes Holbert’s cartoon in yesterday’s Herald:

 

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To be clear: We’re not accusing anyone of anything.

We’re just sayin’.


Boston Editorial Cartoonists Enter WeinerWorld

July 26, 2013

Boston is blessed not only with two daily newspapers, but with two very talented editorial cartoonists: Dan Wasserman at the Boston Globe, and Jerry Holbert at the Boston Herald.

(You can count on two hands the number of daily newspapers nationally that employ editorial cartoonists. And yes, technically Wasserman may be a syndicated cartoonist rather than a Globe staffer, but his drawings still have a Globe identity.)

In Thursday’s editions, the two coincidentally visited Six Flags Over Anthony Weiner.

Holbert:

 

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Wasserman:

 

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Smart, as usual.


Pope-a-Scope in the Boston Dailies

March 14, 2013

Boston being the Cathaholic hub that it is, the hardreading staff is not surprised at the hallelujah chorus in today’s local papers.

Start with the Boston Herald, which doesn’t measure its coverage of newly minted Pope Francis I, it weighs it.

Page One of our feisty local tabloid:

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And then . . .

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And then . . .

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And then . . .

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And then . .

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And then . . .

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And then . . . there was no more news coverage.

But wait – there’s this: An editorial (Francis a true first) and this editorial cartoon by Jerry Holbert:

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Okay then.

Crosstown rival Boston Globe also weighed in with some heavy-duty (if ad-laden) coverage:

Page One of our stately local broadsheet:

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And then . . .

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And then . . .

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And then . . .

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And then there’s this op-ed by James Carroll (no relation):

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And then . . .

That’s it.

Which paper did a better job?

I’ll leave that up to you.


Boston Dailies Are Papal Tigers

February 12, 2013

In this most Cathaholic of towns, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald are on Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation like Brown on Williamson.

For starters, the old Pontifox owns both front pages.

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From there he gets Vatican-size chunks of the newshole – three full pages in each.

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Not to mention his own editorial in each paper.

Herald:

The pope who resigned

In the end it wasn’t the Twitter account that made Pope Benedict XVI a truly 21st century pope. No, it was his decision to resign — a nearly unprecedented action — when he knew that age had robbed him of the ability to minister to his flock of 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.

“Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” the 85-year-old pontiff wrote in the message announcing his decision.

 

Globe:

Benedict’s strict teachings defined an era in Catholicism

THROUGHOUT HIS nearly eight-year papacy, and for 25 years before that as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal officer, Pope Benedict XVI steered the Catholic Church away from the liberalizing reforms symbolized by the Vatican II conference of 1962. His strict interpretation of Catholic teachings led to a proportionally greater emphasis on the church’s opposition to birth control, abortion, and homosexuality. Meanwhile, the Vatican asserted tighter authority over church affairs, a reversal of the decentralizing trends of an earlier era.

These shifts in focus sometimes put the Vatican at odds with followers in the West; Benedict, in turn, expressed concern over the loss of faith among many Catholics in Western Europe and the United States . . .

 

But the Herald gets the Popeier-than-thou nod for also featuring an op-ed by Boston College professor of moral theology James T. Bretzke, and this Jerry Holbert cartoon:

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Bingo.