July 8, 2016
A smashmouth piece in the Huffington Post this week about U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her pattern of political prosecutions has drawn attention in both local dailies, but, as usual, from different angles.
Yesterday’s Boston Globe featured a Joan Vennochi column with this lede:
POLITICAL CORRUPTION cases generate big headlines — and big push back.
Just ask US Attorney Carmen Ortiz. She made a big splash when she indicted two aides to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on charges they forced organizers of a music festival to hire union workers. But now, with Walsh presumed to be her ultimate prize, a posse of critics is throwing cold water on the prosecution.
Vennochi proceeded to cite criticism of Ortiz by former AG Martha Coakley, attorney Harvey Silverglate, and retired federal judge Nancy Gertner – all of whom were quoted in the HuffPost takedown.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, though, the focus was more on the question of Marty Walsh’s possible involvement in the Ortiz hit, given that she has already indicted two Walsh administration officials on charges of extortion.
Yesterday’s front page (Inexplicable Little Green Number sold separately):
The story inside has Walsh denying he’s “waging a PR counteroffensive” against Ortiz, but points out that “Walsh’s chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh, formerly served as chief of staff to Huffington Post Editor Arianna Huffington and as general manager of Huffington Post Live before joining the mayor’s inner circle.”
Today there’s no follow-up in the Globe, but the Herald has this piece by Dan Atkinson.
Call for answers on Huffington Post piece
PAC wants ‘public scrutiny’ re Walsh role
A national conservative group wants to see any communications between City Hall and the authors of a Huffington Post piece blasting U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, saying that if Mayor Martin J. Walsh or his staff engaged in a political hit job, they should be “held up to public scrutiny.”
A Herald front-page story yesterday quoted Walsh saying he and his aides had no involvement in the article, titled “This Federal Prosecutor Is Building A Career Indicting The Good Guys.” But the mayor admitted that he and his chief of staff, Daniel A. Koh — who used to work at The Huffington Post — knew the piece was in the works.
“Both the timeline and the mayor’s answer raised red flags for us,” said Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for America Rising PAC, which filed a public records request with the city for any emails and texts between the Walsh administration and The Huffington Post.
Just what Walsh needs right now, eh? One more group emauling him.
Leave a Comment » | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: Amelia Chase, America Rising PAC, Arianna Huffington, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Carmen Ortiz, Dan Atkinson, Daniel A. Koh, Daniel Marans, Harvey Silverglate, Huffington Post, HuffPost, Joan Vennochi, Ken Brissette, Martha Coakley, Marty Walsh, Nancy Gertner, Ryan Grim, Timothy Sullivan, U.s. Attorney | 
Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
May 29, 2016
From our No Credit Where Credit’s Due desk
For the second straight day the Boston Herald has stiffed the Boston Globe in reporting about the Kenneth Brissette shakedown story.
Let’s start at the beginning, with yesterday’s Page One story in the Globe.
E-mails link Walsh aide to union deal
Stagehands passed festival proposal through Sullivan
A contract requiring the Boston Calling music festival to hire union stagehands in 2014 was submitted for review to a close aide to Mayor Martin J. Walsh during a time when federal prosecutors allege city officials illegally forced the concert organizers to hire unneeded union workers, according to city e-mails released Friday.
The stagehands passed the contract proposal to Boston Calling, a private entity, through Walsh aide Tim Sullivan, according to the e-mails, which were acquired by the Globe through a public records request. In an Aug. 20, 2014 e-mail, the union’s business manager lays out the terms of the agreement and thanks the administration for its assistance.
But here’s how yesterday’s Herald handled the story.
INCHES CLOSER TO MARTY
Communications reveal meetings between mayor’s advisers, Boston Calling, Brissette
A top adviser and close confidante of Mayor Martin J. Walsh was looped into discussions about labor unions with Boston Calling organizers and tourism chief Kenneth Brissette at the same time federal prosecutors say Brissette was strong-arming festival officials to hire union workers, according to newly released emails.
“Newly released emails,” eh? Like out of the goodness of Walsh’s heart?
Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld also refers to them as “the newly released emails.” Just dropped out of the sky.
And so we get to today’s edition of the Herald, which features this follow-up referring to – wait for it – “newly released emails.”
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, the Herald got its own set of City Hall emails released the other day, in this case over the Top Chef rumpus, as yesterday’s edition reported.
A livid TV production staffer warned a city tourism official that Boston was at risk of being blacklisted over heavy-handed union tactics, according to newly released emails.
The scores of emails, obtained by the Herald in a public records request, show the inner workings of the Boston Office of Tourism, Sports and Entertainment that was headed by Kenneth Brissette.
The Globe, as far as we can tell (because the Globe’s search engine is worse than useless), did not pick up on that story. Let’s hope if the lately local broadsheet does, it’ll show better manners than the dodgy local tabloid.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Calling, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Office of Tourism, dodgy local tabloid, Globe search engine, Joyce Linehan, Kenneth Brissette, lately local broadsheet, Marty Walsh, Sports and Entertainment, Tim Sullivan, Top Chef | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 25, 2016
From our Credit Where Credit’s Due desk
In the course of covering local events, the Boston dailies often piggyback on one another’s stories, most often without acknowledging that the rival paper got there first. (See, for example, the Boston Globe’s routine drafting off the Boston Herald’s Grand Prix of Boston coverage.)
But sometimes one of the dailies does the right thing. Spoiler alert: It isn’t the Globe.
Page One of yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe featured this piece about Mayor Martin J. Wiretap.
Walsh is drawn into federal labor probe
Before he was mayor, when Walsh was a labor leader, he was heard on a wiretap saying he had warned a developer using non-union workers. Walsh denies it.
A sweeping federal investigation into allegations of strong-arm tactics by unions has triggered a wave of subpoenas to union leaders, developers, and Boston City Hall staff, bringing scrutiny to Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration and his work as a labor leader before taking office in 2014, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
At issue in the investigation is whether labor officials threatened developers and business people who hired nonunion workers on their projects. Walsh, though apparently not an early focus of the probe, became drawn into it through wiretaps on which he was recorded in 2012, saying he had told a development company it would face permitting problems on a planned Boston high-rise unless it used union labor at another project in Somerville, according to people familiar with the tapes.
Well that’s a big story and you knew right off it would be in the Herald today and sure enough it gets a two-page spread.
Nothing unusual there. But what does stand out are the two times the Globe is credited with breaking the story, first in Hillary Chabot’s piece:
Walsh yesterday shook off suggestions that a federal inquiry into labor strong-arming has any connection to his work as mayor. The Boston Globe reported that Walsh as the head of Boston Building Trades Council was heard on a wiretap in 2012 saying he had warned a developer to get union workers on a Somerville project or risk losing Boston permits.
Then a second time in this piece by Jack Encarnacao and Laurel Sweet:
The wiretapped statement was captured during a conversation between Walsh, then-head of the Boston Building and Construction Trades Council, and Laborers Local 22 leader Anthony Perrone, the Boston Globe reported yesterday citing unnamed sources.
Good for you, Heraldniks!
And, hey, you Morrissey Boulevardiers: Take a lesson, wouldja?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthony Perrone, Boston Building and Construction Trades Council, Boston Building Trades Council, Boston Conservation Commission, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Evan Allen, firsty local tabloid, Grand Prix of Boston, Hillary Chabot, Jack Encarnacao, Joe Battenfeld, Jon Chesto, Laborers Local 22, lately local broadsheet, Laurel Sweet, Martin J. Wiretap, Marty Walsh, Morrissey Boulevardiers | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 24, 2016
From our No Credit Where Credit’s Due desk
Once again the Boston Globe has slipstreamed the Boston Herald’s coverage of the sputtering Grand Prix of Boston, which hopes to take place this Labor Day weekend.
Joe Battenfeld’s Friday Herald piece:
Race Hits Roadblock
In another potentially serious setback to the Boston Grand Prix, a little-known city commission has blocked IndyCar race promoters from building parts of the course because of new climate change rules that require them to get a wetlands permit.
The 4-1 vote by the city’s Conservation Commission is the latest unexpected roadblock to the race, which has faced tough scrutiny from residents and a monthslong review from the city and state that put the Labor Day event in jeopardy.
Evan Allen and Jon Chesto’s Saturday Globe piece:
Conservation panel says Grand Prix needs more permits
Mayor Martin J. Walsh said Friday that he is optimistic IndyCar race organizers would be able to hold their event in South Boston in September, despite new environmental concerns raised by the Boston Conservation Commission.
“I’m hoping to see it here Labor Day weekend,” Walsh told reporters at a morning event. “I think there’s a process now they can follow, and I think they have to follow that process and make their case.”
In a 4-to-1 vote this week, the commission, which has responsibility for protecting wetlands in the city, concluded that the route planned for the race travels through a 100-year flood zone, and that organizers had to apply for permits that consider the potential environmental impact of any construction.
Nowhere does the Globe piece acknowledge that the Herald drove there first.
And this isn’t the only time the lately local broadsheet has drafted off the firsty local tabloid.
C’mon, Globeniks: Be a mensch, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Conservation Commission, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Evan Allen, firsty local tabloid, Grand Prix of Boston, Joe Battenfeld, Jon Chesto, lately local broadsheet, Marty Walsh | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 1, 2016
From time to time the hardreading staff issues credit reports on the stories the Boston dailies appropriate from one another. For example, yesterday we noted that Boston Globe reporter Joshua Miller’s Political Happy Hour gave a credit and a link to Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld’s scoop on the latest dustup between Suffolk University trustees and President Margaret McKenna.
We’re dismayed to report, however, that the frosty local tabloid declined to return the favor today in Donna Goodison’s piece about the redevelopment of the Seaport District’s Pier 4.
Pier 4’s peerless design
Tishman Speyer released new renderings for its Pier 4 project in the Seaport District that will include a nine-story, 100-unit luxury condo building and 13-story office building, both with ground-floor retail and restaurant space.
The New York company plans to demolish the former Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant next week to make room for a one-acre park and half-acre public plaza as part of its development on the South Boston waterfront.
That piece comes in the wake of Tim Logan’s far superior one that appeared in Wednesday’s Globe.
No mention of the Globe’s piece in today’s stingy local tabloid, though.
C’mon, Heraldniks: Be a mensch, eh?
P.S. Boston Magazine’s Kyle Scott Clauss also picked up on the story today, but – to his credit – he did give credit to the Globe.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Meyer, Anthony's Pier 4, board of trustees, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston magazine, Donna Goodison, firsty local tabloid, George Regan, Jim Morris, Joe Battenfeld, John McDonnell, Joshua Miller, Kyle Scott Clauss, Laura Krantz, like Brown on Williamson, Marty Walsh, Monica Barrett, Pier 4, Political Happy Hour, Rasky Baerlein, Regan Communications Group, Regan-omics, Seaport District, stingy local tabloid, Suffolk University, Tim Logan, Tishman Speyer | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 31, 2016
As the hardreading staff has duly noted, Boston Herald communist Joe Battenfeld has been on Suffolk University’s slow-motion defenestration of President Margaret McKenna like Brown on Williamson.
Exhibit Umpteen: Battenfeld’s piece today on the newest salvo in the McKenna rumpus.
New Suffolk offensive
In a new escalation of the nasty war over control of Suffolk University, the school’s trustees are launching an independent probe into allegations of misspending by 
President Margaret McKenna after she balked at cooperating with an internal investigation, sources told the Herald.
The trustees’ decision to investigate came after another attorney engaged by the board concluded the school had to “thoroughly investigate” charges of fiscal impropriety against McKenna brought by public relations maven George Regan after she terminated his longtime contract with Suffolk.
Yeah – those lessons in Regan-omics will get you every time. Turns out in this case, McKenna is collateral damage in the PR poobah’s gold rush.
[Board of Trustees Chair Andrew] Meyer told trustees last week that the school’s executive committee sought an outside opinion from a New York attorney, Monica Barrett, on how to respond to Regan’s charges and his demand for compensation for being fired.
Barrett’s advice to conduct a serious investigation prompted trustees to approach McKenna, sources said, but she didn’t immediately give them access to her expense records. But sources close to McKenna strongly deny she’s refusing to cooperate.
Crosstown, the Boston Globe had nothing on the story in today’s print edition, but reporter Joshua Miller picked up on it in his Political Happy Hour blog post this afternoon:
UNENDING SUFFOLK U BOARD DRAMA, by Joe Battenfeld on page 3 of today’s Boston Herald: “In a new escalation of the nasty war over control of Suffolk University, the school’s trustees are launching an independent probe into allegations of misspending by President Margaret McKenna after she balked at cooperating with an internal investigation, sources told the Herald. …” http://bit.ly/21UJqyL
Hey – a credit and a link?
They must be pretty happy at the firsty local tabloid, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Meyer, board of trustees, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, firsty local tabloid, George Regan, Jim Morris, Joe Battenfeld, John McDonnell, Joshua Miller, Laura Krantz, like Brown on Williamson, Marty Walsh, Monica Barrett, Political Happy Hour, Rasky Baerlein, Regan Communications Group, Regan-omics, Suffolk University | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 5, 2016
The slapfight at Suffolk University between president Margaret McKenna and the school’s board of trustees continues apace, as Laura Krantz reports in today’s Boston Globe.
PR firm is hired at Suffolk to help repair trustees’ image
Suffolk University trustees have hired public relations firm Rasky Baerlein to help repair their image after a three-week standoff between the board and President Margaret McKenna, a board member said Friday.
The firm will work exclusively for the board and will be paid by the university, according to trustee Jim Morris. He said the goal is to repair the board’s image and make sure the trustees’ side of the story is told. He said he did not know the cost of the arrangement.
Morris also told the Globe, “It’s not to declare war against her or anything like that. Everybody wants to calm this thing down. I think we’re on the verge of detente.”
No detente between the local dailies, though. Nowhere in the piece does it mention that Boston Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld had the story yesterday.
C’mon, Globeniks – credit where credit’s due, yeah?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Andrew Meyer, board of trustees, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, George Regan, Jim Morris, Joe Battenfeld, John McDonnell, Laura Krantz, Marty Walsh, Rasky Baerlein, Regan Communications Group, Suffolk University | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
December 10, 2015
As the hardreading staff has repeatedly pointed out, the Boston Herald rarely gets any love from groups or individuals running full-page advocacy or tribute ads, virtually all of which wind up exclusively in the Boston Globe.
Exhibit Umpteen, from today’s edition:
Copy close-up:
Ad sponsor AJC Boston apparently doesn’t believe that Herald readers are interested in 57 municipal leaders “[taking] a stand and [speaking] out against an ancient hatred that once again is raging in places around the globe.”
So once again the thirsty local tabloid goes without.
Huh.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: AJC Boston, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Human Rights Day, Marty Walsh, New England Mayors Against Anti-Semitism, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 7, 2015
Give Joe Battenfeld and the racy local tabloid their due: They’re not downshifting their efforts to total the proposed Grand Prix of Boston, maybe the second-worst idea Mayor Marty Walsh has had in office. (Store 2024 – c’mon down!)
Today’s Boston Herald, Page One (Inexplicable Little Green Numbers Galore!).
Battenfeld’s piece (with Chris Cassidy):
Life in the IndyCar fast lane
Docs show target audience young, rich
Massive luxury skyboxes and beer gardens will loom large over the proposed 2.2-mile Boston IndyCar race course in the Seaport District that could jam traffic and require more permits for the Labor Day weekend spectacle, new documents show.
A 47-page “Stakeholders Info Deck” from the Grand Prix of Boston, obtained by the Herald, is targeting young, smartphone-wielding, rich professionals.
Not, we might add, the Boston Herald readership. The young, smartphone-wielding, rich professionals do, however, read the Boston Globe, which is still drafting in second place.
And round and round we go.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston IndyCar, Chris Cassidy, Grand Prix of Boston, IndyCar, Jim Freudenberg, Joe Battenfeld, Marty Walsh, Not-So-Grand Prix, Patrick Brophy, racy local tabloid, stately local broadsheet, Store 2024 | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 2, 2015
The Not-So-Grand Prix of Boston keeps sputtering along, and it’s the racy local tabloid that’s serving as the pit crew.
Today’s Boston Herald, Page One.
Page 2:
Mayor gives ultimatum to IndyCar
Mayor Martin J. Walsh is demanding IndyCar promoters get their act together, issuing an ultimatum to “finalize” deals with state agencies soon, in a major toughening of his stance on the planned Labor Day road race.
In an emailed letter obtained by the Herald, Walsh’s chief of operations, Patrick Brophy, gave IndyCar just 14 days to reach financial and other agreements with several agencies that control most of the planned course on the waterfront.
“It is expected that your team will finalize agreements with all interested parties within the next two (2) weeks,” Brophy said in an email Friday to Jim Freudenberg, chief commercial officer for the Grand Prix of Boston, local promoters for the race. “Please be advised that the Mayor grows increasingly concerned with the progress (or lack thereof) of those discussions.”
We’ll see if IndyCar can move that fast.
Meanwhile, the Boston Globe has stalled out on the story.
(Your eat-their-dust punchline goes here.)
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Grand Prix of Boston, IndyCar, Jim Freudenberg, Marty Walsh, Not-So-Grand Prix, Patrick Brophy, racy local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 