Hark! The Herald! (U.S. Senate Debate-o-rama)

April 9, 2013

The Boston Herald has officially become a perpetual self-promotion machine. Case in point: The feisty local tabloid 1) co-sponsored a UMass-Lowell debate last night between Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch (that’s good); 2) streamed it live on the Web (okay); and 3) devoted six full pages to it in today’s paper (huh???).

Start with the front page:

 

Picture 1

 

Then on page 2 Hillary Chabot provides the basic play-by-play, and a plug for the debate replay .

 

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Flip to pages 4 and 5 for columnists Margery Eagan and Joe Battenfeld, plus a helpful Scorecard, plus another plug for the debate replay.

 

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Then pages 6 and 7 feature reaction from readers, a focus group, UMass-Lowell junior Corey Lanier, and the Herald’s Peter Gelzinis.

 

Picture 5

Oh, yeah – don’t forget to watch the replay.

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Herald’s Gelzinis: Cahill a Good Guy. Globe’s Vennochi: Good Law, Bad Case

March 9, 2013

Two different – but not necessarily contradictory – takes in the local dailies about former Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill’s close call with the law over financial shenanigans in the Bay State’s 2010 gubernatorial race.

First up: Joan Vennochi’s column in Thursday’s Boston Globe:

With Cahill, a good law and a weak case

IT’S EASY when it’s cash stuffed between a state senator’s breasts or checks funneled through a law partner directly into the pockets of the speaker of the House.

It’s harder — as it should be — when a case for political corruption consists of a feel-good lottery ad campaign that cost taxpayers $1.5 million but never mentions the name of the state treasurer who ordered it up. Those are the underlying facts in the case that Attorney General Martha Coakley brought against former state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill.

While treasurer, Cahill spent public money to advance a personal political agenda — his failed campaign for governor. A new state law makes it a crime for politicians to do that — if prosecutors can show “fraudulent intent.” But in the case against Cahill, the evidence of fraudulent intent simply wasn’t strong enough.

 

That’s the legal angle. Peter Gelzinis had the human angle in his Friday Boston Herald column:

PQ5W8772.JPGTim Cahill: I’m still here

Tim Cahill tucked himself away at a back table a couple of mornings ago, inside his favorite breakfast haunt, McKay’s in Quincy. The word other customers kept tossing his way was, “Congratulations!”

Cahill thanked them all with the grateful smile of someone who’d just come out of a coma.

“I hesitate to think of these past two years as a near-death experience,” he said, referring to his disastrous gubernatorial bid, followed by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s corruption indictment, the threat of serious jail time, a trial that ended in a hung jury and, finally, a negotiated plea to something called “a perception of wrongdoing.”

 

The piece ends with this, which is bound to warm the hearts of Cahill supporters and make his detractors burning mad:

The experience, he said feels “as if I’ve been to my own wake. For two years, I couldn’t really talk to anyone and yet I’ve had all these friends come by to wish me well and tell me they were praying for me. Then, the weirdest, or perhaps, the nicest thing, is that I’m still here to be with them all.”

 

Instead of in the sneezer, where very few ever thought Cahill should wind up.

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OMG! Herald Columnist Can’t Write!

March 4, 2013

The hardreading staff is nothing if not realistic about the writing abilities at the Boston Herald. Some are terrific writers – Margery Eagan & Peter Gelzinis, take a bow; and some are dreadful – Howie Carr, come on down!

Now comes the feisty local tabloid’s new column OMG!, which definitely qualifies for the latter designation.

Representative sample:

OMG_logosDear OMG,

I have a friend who maybe weighs 110 pounds soaking wet — she looks great. But lately she has been making strange comments: mentioning she is on Weight Watchers, contributing to a recipe exchange with the disclaimer “I’ve been eating healthy lately” (the recipe she linked to had the calorie count posted prominently) and generally making comments about her food intake. I’m average weight, but it makes me really uncomfortable that someone so small is making these statements. Should I say something?

— Eating Dessert

Dear Dessert,

Yes. If it’s making you, an average person, uncomfortable, it’s probably affecting overweight people and others struggling with eating or body image issues as well. Try something jokey at first — if she says “I’m trying to eat healthy” when refusing a tray of doughnuts, you can retort, “Well I’m trying to eat more deep fried lard” and see whether that shuts her down. (After all, aren’t most of us trying to eat healthy at least some of the time?) If it still doesn’t slow her comments, pull her aside and say you’d rather not talk about calorie consumption or weight — not just for your mental sake, but for the sake of bored people everywhere.

 

Really? See whether that shuts her down? Still doesn’t slow her comments? 

Dear OMG: It’s clear idiomatic English you want. Not idiotic.

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Herald the Lynchpin for Rep’s U.S. Senate Run

February 1, 2013

If today’s edition is any indication, the Boston Herald will be Stephen Lynch’s in-House organ during his run to replace departing U.S. Sen.  John Kerry (D-Empty Seat).

The feisty local tabloid has one news report (“Some unions already on Lynch’s side”), two columns, and an editorial about Lynch – most all of it positive.

Representative sample: Peter Gelzinis’ column.

STU_8221.JPGWorking-class hero Steve Lynch has got the goods

Steve Lynch was exactly where he wanted to be yesterday afternoon — standing in an ironworkers’ hall, around the corner from the housing project where he grew up, and poised to mount an underdog challenge against a fading political relic.

It’s a place Lynch knows all too well.

Almost 20 years before the bishops of the state Democratic Party blessed Ed Markey’s desire to succeed John Kerry, Steve Lynch ended the dynasty of an emperor named William Bulger.

 

Music – and hearts – swell.

The editorial sounds a similar note:

Defying Beltway dictators

Whatever the future holds for U.S. Rep. Steve Lynch, the people of Massachusetts owe him a huge debt of gratitude for bringing a modicum of small-d democracy back to the Democratic Party.

“All politics is local,” the late U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill was fond of saying — and so it should always be here.

But when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee starts dictating from Washington who should be running in the Massachusetts primary, well, it’s time candidates and voters need to push back.

 

Enter Steve Lynch, representing the people’s wing of the Democratic Party.

Only Wayne Woodlief’s op-ed piece hits a downbeat note.

Lynch faces uphill fight to replace Kerry

South Boston-bred U.S. Rep. Steve Lynch’s entry yesterday into the special Democratic primary for John Kerry’s Senate seat may well give U.S. Rep. Edward Markey of Malden, the odds-on favorite for the April 30 showdown, a sparring partner, not a stumbling block, for the June 25 special election final.

Sure, Lynch, who announced at a union hall in Southie yesterday, is an ex-ironworker (though it’s been a couple of decades since he strapped on those work boots) and is a favorite of many “regular guys.” But there’s no way he can match the money Markey already has raised ($3 million in the till and counting) and find enough to pay for the ads and staff and other costs for an election in just three months.

 

Then again, if Boston Mayor Tom Menino (D-I’m Still Standing) throws in with Lynch, he could make it interesting. Especially with the Herald already on board.

P.S. Crosstown at the Globe, op-ed columnist Scott Lehigh takes Lynch down a peg:

Lynch . . . is someone who goes small on big votes. Take, for example, Obamacare. He voted for the original House legislation, against the final bill on the crucial vote, then in favor of the reconciliation legislation essential to its passage. The explanation Lynch offered for that transparent attempt to have things both ways didn’t just strain credulity, but left it in shreds.

He also went small on the bank bailout. Voting no, as he did, was easy — and yet, many experts will tell you that without the federal infusion of cash, our entire financial system would have frozen up, with devastating consequences.

 

Expect more of that in the future.

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That’s What You Get Living In Mayberry

January 30, 2013

Boston residents got a big helping of more of the same following last night’s State of the City address by Mayor-for-Life Thomas M. Menino.

Boston Globe report:

Optimistic Menino makes return to public stage

In a speech by turns sentimental and unabashedly bullish, Mayor Thomas M. Menino returned to the public stage Tuesday night after a lengthy illness and offered a buoyant vision of Boston, celebrating accom plishments and outlining initiatives for the future.

Menino entered Faneuil Hall to thunderous applause from a crowd of 800 that included Governor Deval Patrick, members of Congress, and scores of other elected officials and dignitaries gathered for the mayor’s State of the City address. Waving to the audience, Menino — serenaded by a Kelly Clarkson pop anthem with the lyric, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” — used a cane to help navigate the 50-foot walk to the stage.

 

Boston Globe editorial:

chin012913menino_met03With a warm speech, Menino shows his rejuvenated spirit

THE HIGHLIGHT of Mayor Menino’s State of the City speech wasn’t its admirable theme of enhancing human potential. It wasn’t in the genuinely impressive progress in city development, with 2,000 units of housing now under construction. And it wasn’t in Menino’s trademark medium-sized initiatives, like his networking plan for women-owned businesses.

Rather, the highlight was Menino himself. In his proud, steady walk to the podium, with only the help of a cane, Menino sent a strong signal that he is back of the job after nearly six weeks in the hospital for a range of ailments, followed by another month of rehab. The mutual affection between Menino and the city was visible in his interaction with the crowd, which whooped and applauded at even corny lines like a joke about Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women.” For his part, Menino offered his sincere thanks to all who helped him and stood by him during his rehabilitation. And he showed his graciousness in other ways, too, such as with a comradely tribute to retiring State Senator Jack Hart.

 

Time to edit Tip O’Neill’s classic “All politics is local.”

Nowadays in Boston, all politics is cozy.

Exhibit Umpteen from Peter Gelzinis’ Boston Herald column:

STU_7922.JPGWalk the walk & talk the talk? Yes, he can!

In the end, it was the irrepressible Rev. Eugene Rivers who captured the most important 50-foot stroll of Thomas Michael Menino’s public life.

“That dude didn’t just walk into this hall tonight, you understand,” Rivers said, of the mayor’s unassisted entrance into Faneuil Hall, “Tommy, man, he gangsta-walked in here, you hear what I’m sayin’?

“The message the man sent out to all those pretenders to the throne was, ‘Any of you wanna piece of this?’ ”

 

Not to get technical about it, but Eugene Rivers is the Hub’s fraud di tutti fraudi. And the ultimate Menino toady.

Any of you wanna piece of that?

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Herald: City Haul in Menino’s Absence

November 16, 2012

It’s now three weeks Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s been in the hospital with a Whitman’s Sampler of symptoms, and not surprisingly, political maneuvering is the order of the day (although anyone who bets against Menino running again doesn’t really care about his money).

According to the Boston Herald, it’s all hijinks and shenanigans down at City Hall. Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

Seems a bit hyperventilating to the hardreading staff, but that’s nothing new for the feisty local tabloid. Nor is the double coverage from bookend columnists.

Peter Gelzinis:

For once, the council prez chase matters

It seems that the growing public concern over Mayor Thomas Menino’s indefinite hospitalization has been exceeded only by the simmering political intrigue within the chamber of the Boston City Council.

As one insider put it yesterday, “The long knives are starting to come out.”

With each day the mayor spends at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the presidency of the City Council suddenly looms larger and larger.

“No one will dare admit it right now,” said a council watcher, “but all of them know that thistime, being council president might actually mean something.”

Say – are we zoned for that?

Joe Battenfeld:

Voters primed to pick black or Latino pol

The stars are aligned for Boston voters — as soon as next year — to make some long overdue history.

Whether Mayor Thomas M. Menino finally decides to retire or not, there’s a good chance his successor will be either black or Hispanic.

That would be ho-hum news in most other major cities, but not in Boston, where every single mayor for the past 190 years has been a white male. That’s an astounding distinction, considering that nearly half of Boston’s registered voters are now minorities.

“Distinction” sounds so positive; maybe we could call it an aberration.

Meanwhile, crosstown at the Boston Globe, the Corner Office  Steeplechase gets not two columns, but two paragraphs in Brian McGrory’s piece today.

On to the mayoralty. For years, every time I’ve thought about joining the chorus that says Thomas M. Menino should retire, I do something crazy. I look around this city. And what I see is a waterfront that may be the most booming urban neighborhood in America, clean streets and cranes in Dudley Square, a relatively low crime rate, stable property values, and sections from the North End to the South End that are packed with diners, play-goers, and just plain strollers through the week. Menino may not be fancy, but his effectiveness is indisputable. But today marks his 21st day at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which means that every member of that august legislative body known as the Boston City Council is plotting his or her own mayoral campaign for 2013. It’s a little scary when you consider that whenever anyone calls a recess at a City Council hearing, the entire group runs frantically for the doors to play kickball outside, juiceboxes in hand. Not that kind of recess, guys.

McGrory then turns Great Mentioner, listing a handful of possible candidates from Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley to Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish.

Wait – is that Tom Menino we hear? He says Go Fish.

 

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Remembering Legendary Herald Reporter Joe Heaney

November 12, 2012

Sunday’s Boston Herald featured a fond farewell to former reporter Joe Heaney, described by a co-worker as “just a wonderful man with a big, kind heart and witticisms to the end of time.”

His time ended, Heaney received a two-gun salute, first in a Herald Staff obituary:

Joseph Patrick Heaney, award-winning reporter for Boston Herald, 82

MONT VERNON, N.H. — Joseph Patrick Heaney was an artist with words who could cut to the core of a story in a single sentence — a “poetic version of John Wayne” — say those who knew the master horseman and award-winning reporter for the Boston Herald and other newspapers.

Mr. Heaney died peacefully Friday at Community Hospice House in Merrimack after a brief struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 82.

Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis contributed this to the Irish wake:

Gifted reporter lived fearlessly

What made Joe Heaney such a gifted reporter were things that could never be taught. They could only be lived … fearlessly.

Late Friday afternoon, this noble gentleman with a devilish Irish wit, broad shoulders and wise, compassionate eyes succumbed to cancer at the age of 82.

“He was a guy who managed to travel from the depths of sadness to the tops of joy,” said Paul Sullivan, his longtime friend and Boston Herald colleague.

To lose three of seven children to illness and still find the will to chase fires, dog politicians, huddle with cops and empathize with a mother lamenting the murder of her child was the truest testament to Joe’s singular strength of character.

He was a unique blend of ink-stained wretch and expert horseman, who once combined those skills to retrace the ride of William Dawes from Boston to Lexington in full Colonial dress.

Helpful file photo:

 

They don’t make ’em like that anymore, do they?

 

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