Boston Herald Gets Props From Boston Globe & NYT!

July 8, 2018

Stop the presses! The feisty local tabloid was totally legit yesterday!

Start with the Boston Globe, where correspondent Matt Stout (formerly of the Boston Herald) filed this report.

Judge overseeing Hefner lawsuit steps down

The Superior Court judge who approved a request to shield the name of the man suing former Senate president Stanley C. Rosenberg and his husband, Bryon Hefner, abruptly stepped down from the civil case Friday, shortly after the two filed paperwork opposing it.

Judge Debra A. Squires-Lee did not say why she recused herself from the case against Hefner and Rosenberg, which alleges that Hefner sexually assaulted a then-State House aide and that Rosenberg “knew or was aware” that Hefner posed a risk to others.

The aide, identified as John Doe in court filings, said Hefner sexually assaulted him at least three times in 2015 and 2016.

 

Make Joe Sciacca go nuts (bad division) tenth graf:

The Boston Herald first reported Rosenberg and Hefner’s filings.

 

Then again, Jennifer Schuessler’s New York Times piece yesterday about BSO flutist Elizabeth Rowe’s equal-pay lawsuit quite likely eased the pain.

Star Flutist Sues Boston Symphony Over Pay Equity

The top flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has filed a gender pay discrimination suit against the ensemble, claiming that her compensation is only about 75 percent that of her closest comparable colleague, the orchestra’s principal oboist, who is a man.

The suit, which was filed on Monday by Elizabeth Rowe, the orchestra’s principal flutist and one of its most prominent musicians, appears to be the first under a new law in Massachusetts that requires equal pay for “comparable work.” The law was passed in 2016, but it did not go into effect until Sunday, after employers had two years to rectify disparities.

 

Make Joe Sciacca go nuts (good division) fifth graf:

[A]ccording to Ms. Rowe’s lawsuit, which seeks $200,000 in unpaid wages, pay disparities can be significant. Ms. Rowe, 44, is paid about $70,000 less each year than John Ferrillo, 62, the principal oboist, based on data in the lawsuit and tax records. That is despite the fact that they play next to each other and are both “leaders of the orchestra in similarly demanding artistic roles,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by The Boston Herald.

 

That, my friends, is music to the hungry local tabloid’s ears.

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Boston Herald Diaspora Landing at Boston Globe

June 1, 2018

As our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town noted in their Hexit Watch™ a couple of months ago, it didn’t take long for former Boston Herald editorial page editor Rachelle Cohen to get back in the newspaper business after exiting the shrinky local tabloid.

Two months ago her Globe op-ed Befriending the Stranger featured this tag.

Last month her op-ed on the Democrats’ Pelosi problem had a slimmer tag.

Today, Cohen’s op-ed about John Kasich has her on (editorial) board at the Globe.

Good move by the Globe adding a smart, tough, reasonable voice to their opinion pages.

Another Herald escapee – Matt Stout – seems to have gone in a reverse direction. Stout jumped to the Globe in early March, starting off with this web piece.

 

 

So there he’s Globe Staff. But since then, he’s been Globe Correspondent.

 

 

So the headscratching staff went to – where else? – Twitter for the tiebreaker.

We’ll just leave it at that.

 

 

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Hark! The Herald! (Michael Goldman/MBTA Edition)

June 24, 2015

From our Walt Whitman desk

Today’s Boston Herald features the latest in its series of told-you-so front pages.

 

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Helpful close-up:

 

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The story inside focuses on the $300,000 ad campaign the MBTA’s Boston Carmen’s Union has been running for several months.

ON THE CAMPAIGN RAIL

Carmen spent $300G on ads to battle Baker’s MBTA reform

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The powerful Boston Carmen’s Union, in a bid to derail Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA reforms, has spent $300,000 on radio ads, organized campaign-style phone banks and poured thousands into the political coffers of key lawmakers and politicians 
overseeing T policy, a Herald 
review found.

The review shows the 6,000-member-strong labor group’s mounting resistance as a top legislative committee has rebuffed Baker’s key reforms . . .

 

The Herald’s Erin Smith and Matt Stout write, “[t]he carmen have put out three radio spots, at a cost of $300,000, so far, with a fourth expected by the end of the week and the campaign isn’t over yet, according to longtime Democratic campaign operative Michael Goldman, who is coordinating the media strategy for Local 589.” (Listen to one here.)

There’s also a radio blitz on local airwaves from the Amalgamated Transit Union, which Goldman says he’s not associated with. Of the union’s “we’re here to help” ads Goldman says, “[our] thing has been positive commercials.”

Positive, maybe, but not all that reliable, as CommonWealth magazine pointed out last month.

One ad says, “Given the advanced age of current equipment and tracks, it’s a miracle that fully 95 percent of the million-plus trips made each year have been completed on time. But the T transit workers won’t be satisfied until that number reaches 100 percent.”

Yeah. Except the Carmen’s Union definition of “completed on time” is . . . “actually happened.” If you define completed on time as “arrived at destination on schedule,” that 95% drops to around 72% (67% this year so far) according to CommonWealth’s Steve Koczlea and Bruce Mohl.

So, once again we see that MBTA=Might Be Totally Accurate.

Or might not.

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Hark! The Herald! (Sigma Delta Chi Awards Edition)

April 25, 2015

From our Walt Whitman desk

Well, the Society of Professional Journalists has announced its annual Sigma Delta Chi awards, and the Boston Herald exercised great restraint by waiting until page 2 to announce its good fortune.

 

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For those of you keeping score at home, that’s Herald reporters Matt Stout and Erin Smith who won a Non-Deadline Reporting award for their coverage of the state’s dreadful foster care system. Congrats to both.

Crosstown, the Boston Globe’s David Abel won a Feature Reporting award for his piece, For Richard family, loss and love. Abel has yet to get a shoutout from the stately local broadsheet, but we’ll give him one here.

Elsewhere in Boston media, WBUR’s Asma Khalid and Shawn Bodden won a Digital Audio award for A Fear Of Going To School: 5 Former Boston Students Reflect On Busing. Kudos to that duo.

A nice haul for the locals, yeah?

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Page One Hill-arity Ensues at Boston Dailies

April 21, 2015

From our One Town, Two Different Hillarys desk 

(First in what we expect will be a long-running series)

It’s gonna be like this every time Hillary Clinton (D-Chelsea) goes to New Hampshire.

Boston Globe:

 

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From the piece by Annie Linskey and James Pindell:

During a stop at Whitney Brothers, a furniture company in Keene, [Clinton] laid out a tax reform philosophy that would differentiate between businesses like that one and those that “are just playing back and forth in the global marketplace to get one tenth of one percent of advantage” and were “at the root of some of the economic problems that we all remember from 2008.”

She also cast herself as a defender of Social Security and tried to demonstrate that she shares common cause with factory workers struggling to get by.

 

Uh-huh.

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, Clinton’s definitely no woman of the people.

 

Screen Shot 2015-04-21 at 2.25.37 PM

 

From the piece by Matt Stout and Prisca Pointdujour:

Clinton came [to Keene] for her first stop in the Granite State since announcing her 2016 Oval Office campaign. The former U.S. secretary of state toured Whitney Brothers, a family-owned children’s furniture business, and huddled with employees for a much-publicized roundtable — but never pressed the flesh with several dozen people huddled outside.

Most of the ignored backers were also young — a key demographic for the former first lady.

 

Also no doubt struggling to get by. Or at least get acknowledged.

Just for good measure, Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld piled on:

Listen up, voters: Hilary doesn’t have time for you

So it looks like Hillary Clinton’s idea of a “listening” tour is strictly invitation only.

Just ask the good people of Keene, N.H., a liberal hamlet where a half-dozen workers at a business hand-picked by Clinton’s Screen Shot 2015-04-21 at 3.06.06 PMcampaign made the cut. But dozens of unscreened voters standing outside in the rain? Sorry, Hillary won’t be “listening” to you.

And voters better get used to it, because Clinton can pretty much do whatever she wants until next fall. Who’s going to protest, her Democratic primary 
rivals? There aren’t any. The media? Most are in the tank.

 

Not the Herald, though. In all matters Clinton, the feisty local tabloid is the tank.

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Marty Walsh Channels Orwell on 5-Ring Referendum

March 24, 2015

(Previously . . . in the Marty Walsh Gazette . . . )

Today’s Boston Herald features more slop from City Hall on the Store 2024 rumpus.

A full page worth, in fact.

 

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 10.34.47 AM

 

From Matt Stout’s piece: “The ‘Team Walsh’ meeting [tonight] comes amid the increasing likelihood of a 2016 ballot initiative as both Attorney General Maura Healey and Gov. Charlie Baker threw their support behind a referendum yesterday.”

And Jaclyn Cashman writes in her column, “Walsh has even warmed up to a ballot question regarding bringing the games to the Bay State. He learned Bay Staters get furious when they feel their voices don’t matter.”

But . . .

Here’s the official statement City Hall released today:

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR WALSH ON OLYMPIC REFERENDUM

“Hosting the Olympic Games presents an opportunity to envision and build together the next chapter in Boston’s history. The success of our bid for the Olympics depends on the support of residents and we should only move forward in a way that will bring the greatest benefit to the City and its neighborhoods. Over the next year, I encourage residents to engage in a conversation to learn more about what the Olympics could mean for Boston and the entire Commonwealth, and to put forward any suggestions or concerns. The Olympics offers a catalyst to unlocking our full potential and only through collaboration can we take advantage of this chance to elevate Boston to new heights.”

 

Excellent! The Statement on the Olympic Referendum doesn’t actually mention the Olympic Referendum.

Then, several hours ago, this popped up on the Herald’s website:

Boston 2024 sets date for statewide referendum on Olympics bid

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The head of Boston 2024 today set a date for a binding statewide referendum on the Boston Olympics — and vowed to give voters in Boston veto power over the controversial project.

“We believe now is the time that 2024 would like to propose a referendum in 2016,” Boston 2024 chair John Fish told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “What that is saying is that: let the voters vote — not just the voters of Boston — but a referendum statewide. What we will commit to is if the statewide referendum passes but the voting bloc in Boston doesn’t want the Olympics, we won’t host the Olympics.”

 

There you go. Or there the Olympic bid goes.

Take your pick.

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Herald Hit on Hillary ‘Warrens’ a More Honest Look

December 20, 2014

The Boston Herald jumps all over some Kennedy-on-Clinton action today, giving Page One over to Joe K 3.0.

 

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Inside, reporter Matt Stout elaborates:

Kennedy: ‘Companies clearly create jobs’

U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III said yesterday that “companies clearly create jobs,” putting distance between himself and potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose controversial comments on the Screen Shot 2014-12-20 at 12.29.35 PMsubject are expected to be fodder for Republicans this upcoming election cycle.

One of the Bay State’s rising political stars, Kennedy said in a Herald interview yesterday that Congress needs to embrace policies geared toward economic equality as it prepares to return next month under Republican control. But he said helping businesses, big and small, to “flourish” needs to remain part of that, as Democrats — increasingly galvanized by the populist bullhorn wielded by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren — try to beat back criticism that they’re anti-business.

 

We-think-she’s-nuts graf:

Republicans once galvanized by President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” comment in 2012 were re-energized in late October when Clinton sent shock waves through the Twittersphere when she told Democrats in Boston, “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.”

 

(Columnist Joe Battenfeld piles on with this piece, in which he speculates that Joe K 3.0 “may help derail Clinton’s White House path by endorsing her potential 2016 opponent, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, much the same way the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy backed Barack Obama in 2008.”)

The problem with this Hill-steria on the Herald’s part is that it conveniently overlooks this:

 

 

Yeah – that was Elizabeth Warren two years ago, not two months ago like Clinton. So you could say Warren was the Granny of that particular sentiment.

But the Herald wouldn’t say that. Doesn’t fit their storyline, does it?

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Herald Takes Dig at Globe State House Digs

August 10, 2014

Last week, as you splendid readers might – or, more likely, might not – recall, the hardreading staff noted the yin and yang of State House renovation coverage in the local dailies. Today comes the latest installment in the form of this piece by Boston Herald political scribe Matt Stout.

Treat the Press

Renovation 
costs for Globe 
at State House near $30G

New six-figure “blast” windows, $120,000 in floor repairs, $26,000 to move wall sockets because of “revised furniture layouts” — the extra $2.3 million spent to repair the State House’s gubernatorial suite ran the gamut of changes.ASTU2274.JPG

Count The Boston Globe among those added costs.

Work connected to the broadsheet’s fourth-floor State House office is sprinkled throughout the project’s so-called change orders, thanks in part to its place in the building’s cozy southwest corner.

 

Mee-ow. The final tally? “All told, the state credited $29,550 in unforeseen work in connection with the paper’s digs.”

Funny, but that fact went unmentioned in both Akilah Johnson’s report last week (which was entirely uncritical) and Joan Vennochi’s follow-up column the next day (which was reasonably critical of the “museum quality” makeover).

Big deal, you say? Thirty grand is lunch money compared to the total $11.3 million tab? Just sour grapes on the part of the Herald?

Roll your own.

Last graf of Stout’s piece:

The Herald’s fifth-floor office was unaffected by the monthslong construction. (Though, if anyone over there is reading, our A/C has been making weird noises.)

 

Buck up, Matt – summer’s almost gone.

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Shirley the Herald’s Kidding About Grossman’s Mom

August 5, 2014

From our You Never Call, You Never Write desk

There’s been a lot of hoopla about the Super PAC called Mass Forward, which has been ad-whacking gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley (D-The Weeds) on behalf of gubernatorial hopeful Steve Grossman (D-Everywhere Else). State lawmakers passed a law last week forcing independent expenditure groups to disclose their donors, and the latest ad from Mass Forward does.

 

 

Freeze-frame with disclosure:

 

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Of course the name that jumps right out at you – and the local dailies – is Shirley Grossman. Subsequently this Matt Stout piece appeared in the Boston Herald delivered to the hardreading staff this morning.

A woman with the same name as the mother of state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Steve Grossman is among the top donors to a Super PAC backing his candidacy.

But the Grossman campaign is refusing to confirm whether the Shirley Grossman listed as a leading contributor to the Mass Forward Super PAC is Grossman’s mother, whose name is also Shirley Grossman . . .

Grossman’s campaign acknowledged that the candidate’s mother has the same name, but otherwise declined comment.

 

But here’s what’s on the Herald website (and in later editions of the paper) now, complete with That’s Just So Mean! photo:

Steve Grossman’s mom a top donor for Super PAC

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State Treasurer Steve Grossman’s 92-year-old mom is a leading donor to a super PAC backing his gubernatorial campaign, the candidate confirmed last night.

“I can tell you, having had the first and only conversation I’ll have with my mother about her contribution this afternoon, she said, ‘Yeah, it was me. I do what I believe is appropriate with my money.’ I said you’re entitled to do what you want, I don’t want to know anything else.”

Grossman said he made the call after donor names were released in a PAC ad, and news broke on Bostonherald.com that his mother was a donor. He said neither he nor his campaign aides were previously aware of her donation, which prompted their cryptic response yesterday, when they would only confirm that Shirley Grossman is his mother’s name. He said he didn’t ask how much she donated.

 

Crosstown, the Boston Globe had the bright idea of going straight to the source from the start, resulting in this Akilah Johnson piece:

New law identifies Super PAC donors

A new state campaign finance law forced the release of the top five donors to a political action committee supporting state Treasurer Steve Grossman’s gubernatorial bid. Among them: his mother.

tlumacki_democratstateconvention_metro732

“I’m not young. I’m old, and I haven’t been able to do anything for the campaign, and I believe in Steve,” Shirley Grossman said in an interview. “I thought it over. I’m 92 years old. What could I do? I can’t go house to house.”

So, she decided to write a check to the Mass Forward political action committee.

On Monday, she wouldn’t say how much she had contributed, describing it only as “a lot of money.”

 

The moral of this story: Call your (or someone else’s) mother.

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More Than One Hitch to Baker/Polito Union

December 4, 2013

The shotgun wedding between Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker and lieutenant governor hopeful Karyn Polito had its engagement announcement in Monday’s Boston Globe.

Running mate issue gets thornier for Charlie Baker

Karyn E. Polito, the former Republican legislator who lost a 2010 run for state treasurer, is poised to announce her candidacy for lieutenant governor this week, a move that puts GOP gubernatorial favorite Charlie Baker in a difficult spot as he ponders a potential running mate.

Polito, a 47-year old Shrewsbury resident, is expected to declare as early as Tuesday that she will seek the nomination for the second spot on the 2014 10282010_28treasurer_photo3-7754405gubernatorial ticket, according to several state Republicans with knowledge of her plans.

Baker is expected to lead the ticket, and Polito’s candidacy would pose a politically ticklish question for him: whether to try to control the makeup of his ticket, as he successfully did in his 2010 run for governor, or to leave the decision to voters.

Having Polito as a running mate could be both an asset and a potential liability.

 

And etc.

The GOPpy couple tied the knot in today’s edition of our stately local broadsheet.

Charlie Baker picks Karyn Polito as running mate

Nod to conservatives may also help him with women voters

SHREWSBURY — Charlie Baker, the leading Republican candidate for governor, named former state representative Karyn Polito as his running mate Tuesday, presenting voters with a unified ticket fully 11 months before the gubernatorial election.

Polito’s selection serves as an overture to party conservatives, among whom she is popular, and as an effort to raise Baker’s standing among female voters, a baker-bigconstituency he lost heavily when he ran for the corner office in 2010.

Her hometown of Shrewsbury also bolsters Baker’s candidacy in Worcester County, a stronghold for Republicans in recent elections.

Polito, in her 2010 bid for state treasurer, racked up more votes than Baker did in the three-way race for governor. As she announced her candidacy at a Shrewsbury diner on Tuesday, she said she wants voters to see her as a “mom, a business owner, and an optimist.”

 

Leave it to the Boston Herald, though, to crash the reception.

Insider: Pick not Charlie’s first choice

Former State Rep. Karyn Polito wasn’t Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker’s first choice — or even his second, according to a source who said Baker considered several other female GOP running mates and even former Attorney General Tom Reilly before settling on Polito.120313politotf05

“It’s not uncommon, when candidates look for running mates, that you get further down the list than you hope to,” said a Republican source close to the Baker campaign. “Discussions were had with a lot of other people, and there were a lot who weren’t interested.”

 

Karyn Polito: mom, business owner, optimist . . . second runner-up. 

According to the piece by Hillary Chabot and Matt Stout, “Baker . . . reached out to Mary Connaughton, a former GOP candidate for auditor, who told the Herald two weeks ago that she turned down the offer because she is happy with her job at the Pioneer Institute.”

Finishing behind Connaughton is one thing, but Tom Reilly? Really?

Today’s feisty local tabloid also has a Joe Battenfeld piece on the Two-Time Charlie/Karyn Enough knot-tying, along with a pro & con honeymoon preview.

(Skunk at the Garden Party honors go to the Globe’s Scot Lehigh, who says Massachusetts should tear the sheets and dump the lieutenant governor’s office altogether, which will happen about the same time Baker and Polito adopt Tim Murray).

The hardreading staff gives that couple 11 months.

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