Pols on Parade for Columbus Day

October 8, 2012

Today both local dailies quite naturally featured stories about the usual political gladhanding – most notably by Senate rivals Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren – at East Boston’s annual Columbus Day Parade.

But one paper had better marching orders.

Boston Globe (boink! Sorry, paywall):

Brown, Warren keep on marching

Tight, heated race stops in E. Boston

The state’s hotly contested race for the US Senate came to East Boston on Sunday afternoon, as Republican incumbent Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, both marched in the city’s annual Columbus Day parade.

Separated only by the UMass Lowell marching band, the rivals greeted supporters along the route as their aides and volunteers tried to pump up the crowd by chanting slogans and passing out campaign paraphernalia.

Campaign signs for both candidates dotted the route, and Brown and Warren appeared to be greeted with comparable levels of enthusiastic cheers, polite applause, and quiet stares as the parade progressed.

The Globe also noted that “Warren . . . marched with a group of mostly young supporters, as well as Boston city councilors Salvatore LaMattina, Ayanna Pressley, and Felix Arroyo.”

The Herald coverage, on the other hand, took a slightly different route:

Brown: Jobless rate’s for real

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown scoffed yesterday at conspiracy theories circulated by his party and business tycoon Jack Welch that the Obama administration concocted last week’s encouraging unemployment numbers to distract from the president’s mauling by former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney in their first televised debate.

“No, no, no,” the senator said when asked by a reporter if he believes the jobless numbers were fake.

But Brown, who has been touting his bipartisan voting record on the campaign trail, stopped short of giving Obama any credit for steering the economy toward recovery.

“Listen, we had one month out of 40 something. Let’s see what happens next month. Everything’s flat. I know it, he (Obama) knows it, everyone knows it . . . ”

But there was nothing flat about the response the Herald got when it quizzed Warren on the same topic:

When Brown’s rival, Elizabeth Warren, who also marched, was asked whether she thought Democrats fudged the numbers, an angry Mayor Thomas M. Menino answered for her.

“That’s a typical explanation from Jack Welch. Where has he been the last three or four years? These are real numbers,” Menino railed. “Jack Welch, go back to New York! Stay there.”

Like we said, better marching orders.

 


Boston Herald Welches on Jobless Numbers

October 7, 2012

The Boston Herald jumped the shark yet again with yesterday’s Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

That thoroughly irresponsible headline was followed up by a slightly more responsible piece inside:

Backlash as GE legend slams jobless numbers

The typically sedate ritual of monthly jobs reporting has ignited a political fire storm, with shocked economists calling the huge job gains a “fiscal anomaly” and former Hub business titan Jack Welch sparking a Twitter war with accusations President Obama’s Chicago cronies are cooking the books.

“This whole number is made of a whole mess of assumptions,” the former General Electric CEO and Hub resident told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “Who’s participating? Who’s not working? Who’s trying to work that’s dropped out. It just raises the question. I think there ought to be a good discussion of how this number is calculated.”

Earlier in the day, Welch tweeted: “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”

That’s total nonsense, unless you’re a card-carrying member of Tinfoil Hat Nation.

But reality’s never gotten in the way of a juicy Herald story.

(For once, the absence of a story in the Boston Globe is a good thing, although it did post this on its website.)

Meanwhile, for a more earthbound perspective, see Joe Nocera’s column in Saturday’s New York Times, and this piece on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.

P.S. Earth to Herald: Get a grip, eh?