Hark! The Herald! (A-Roid Edition)

August 6, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

Well our feisty local tabloid won another big award yesterday – a coveted Top Ten Front Pages nod from the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages.

NY_NYP-1Judgment Day

Today is the day that Major League Baseball is expected to suspend 10 players for their ties to a Florida anti-aging clinic. The biggest catch among them: New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who could be suspended through 2014. Some of the front pages in today’s Top Ten have already passed judgment. Don’t hold back, New York Post. Don’t hold back.

Here’s yesterday’s Boston Herald contribution:

 

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(That’s it – we’re definitely starting a Boston Herald Little Green Numbers group on Facebook.)

And here is today’s Herald putting on the pom-poms:

 

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Their Moms must be so proud.

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Hark! The Herald! (Internet Radio Edition Umpteen)

August 2, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

It’s time someone called Social Services. The Boston Herald’s abuse of its news pages is now bordering on the criminal.

For months the Herald has been flogging its Wayne’s World webcast Press Party in the news pages, à la this from today’s page two:

 

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Now the Herald has gone all Mickey Rooney over Internet radio.

(Hey, kids! Let’s put on a radio station! We can use Pat Purcell’s garage!)

That, of course, calls for all the newsvertising that fits, which up to this point has involved half of Page One. But apparently that’s not enough, because today the dicey local tabloid gives it two-thirds.

 

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Plus, it goes without saying, the obligatory inside spread:

 

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(Come to think of it, if it goes without saying, why do we still say it? And don’t you come to think of everything you write or say? Who comes up with this stuff?)

Sorry – we’re back now.

Hard to say what’s most striking about today’s hoopla, but that “state-of-the-art” claim is a good place to start. As the redoubtable David Bernstein tweeted:

 

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Oh – and P.S.:

 

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As for the rest of today’s spread, it’s just one big advertisement in news drag.

You’d think real journalists would be embarrassed to stoop to this.

Then again, it is the Herald.

 

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Hark! The Herald! (More Internet Radio Edition)

July 30, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

Hey, kids! Mark your calendars! It’s Day Two of the Great Herald Radio Countdown.

As the hardreading staff noted yesterday, the Boston Herald devoted two full pages of Monday’s edition to the gala announcement of an Internet radio stream that will debut next week. What we neglected to mention, however, was that one-half of Monday’s Page One was devoted to the glad tidings.

 

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And they’re no less glad today.

 

MA_BH

 

Once again, the feisty local tabloid also devotes two full pages to promoting the new venture.

 

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(The e in the Herald’s e-edition must stand for erratic, since those little green numbers pop up entirely at random.)

Anyway, here’s our choice for Plug o’ the Day:

 

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No shit, Sherlock.  The Herald just spent two pages of what they laughably call the newshole telling us exactly that.

P.S. Crosstown at the Boston Globe, the Names column has this plug for RadioBDC, the Globe’s Internet ghost of the nearly departed WFNX.

 

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Be interesting to see if some news/talk shows start turning up on the indie rockstream.

 

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Hark! The Herald! (Internet Radio Edition)

July 30, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

Say, that’s some big news about the feisty local tabloid launching Boston Herald Radio, yeah?

All the details were, well, detailed in the Herald Radio Countdown that ran in Monday’s edition:

072513radiojfm06Herald internet radio to get Boston connected

The Herald is poised to take a dramatic step toward a richer experience for its online audience as it launches a new Internet radio station.

The countdown has begun for 6 a.m. next Monday, Aug. 5, when Boston Herald Radio goes live.

Veteran talk show host Jeff Katz will launch a morning drive news talk show that will lead into 12 hours of live broadcasting each weekday.

There will be four shows in all, including “Live from the Newsroom with Jeff Katz,” “Morning Meeting with Jaclyn Cashman and Hillary Chabot,” “The Michael Graham Show” and “Sports Town with Jon 
Meterparel and Jen Royle.”

 

In other words, the usual Herald suspects.

But let’s focus on the big picture:

 

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Note especially the hostage-like statements from local politicians.

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy 3.0:

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Gov. Deval Patrick:

 

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Truly, the hardreading staff can’t wait for the August 5 debut.

 

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Baby I Can Drive My Carr (Merciful End Edition?)

July 17, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

Boston Herald hack Howie Carr gets another spotlight dance with himself as he devotes today’s column to his favorite topic:

DSC_2683.JPGA case of what might have been

I got cut. Whitey gave me my outright release yesterday from his defense-witness list.

One minute I’m there, the 
next I’m gone, kicked down the stairs like I’m Aaron Bleepin’ Hernandez or somebody.

Around the courthouse yesterday, it was like the Monday before the start of the NFL season in September. People milling about in confusion, not knowing what to do now that they’d been placed on witness waivers.

 

Well, Carr knew what to do: spend the rest of the column fantasizing about what he would have said if he had been called on to testify.

Representative sample:

If I had been called, and it was always a long shot, I had been planning to start by dropping a few words and phrases in here and there, no matter what question his lawyer Jay Carney hit me with.

“Well, Mr. Carney, your client used to stare at me — Sal Mineo — whenever I’d drive around the rotary — Hank Garrity — and I’m told he wanted me to come in — Jacques — and … what was the question again?”

 

Uh-huh. That would’ve happened right around the time Carr won a Pulitzer.

Funny, though – no fake testimony about all the money he split with John “Hitman” Martorano, whose 20 murders netted him a short 12 years and a sweet six-figure book deal.

Far more convenient to take the Fifth, eh?

 

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Hark! The Herald! (Zimmerman Verdict Edition)

July 16, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

Stop the presses! The Boston Herald made The Newseum’s Top Ten Front Pages on Monday.

 

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Here’s the text:

In the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin 17 months ago, people took to the streets Sunday in cities across the country to protest the not-guilty verdict. The power of the story lies in the front-page images of people’s reactions and questions about where Zimmerman and the country go from here.

 

Also noteworthy but too small to read: the New York Daily News Page One.

 

NY_DN

 

Mediaite called it an effort to “irresponsibly gin up hatred and sell newspapers” in contrast to the “measured” editorial that ran in the same edition.

But back to our award-winning local tabloid. Here’s how it celebrated in today’s edition:

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The hardreading staff is not on this earth long enough to spend time finding out if any other Top Tenners toss the confetti in their own papers, but we’re guessing they don’t. Just one more way the Herald is special.

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Hark! The Herald! (John Paul II Edition)

July 6, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

You know that visit to Boston Pope John Paul II made in 1979? Turns out it was all the Boston Herald’s doing.

Page 6  of today’s feisty local tabloid:

 

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Close-up:

 

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So forever-orange-tinted George Regan says it was, well, George Regan who got it done back in ’79.

And orange we glad he did.

Badda-boom.

 

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Baby I Can Drive My Carr

June 18, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

By now it’s clear to the hardreading staff – as it should be to everyone – that the trial of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger is about one thing and one thing only:

Howie Carr.

The Boston Herald columnist previously milked his presence on Bulger’s witness list for some bulk-mail pieces. Now it’s John Martorano’s turn to get a Carr ride.

From today’s piece:

061713evidence 007Martorano’s ‘career’ nothing to be proud of

Johnny Martorano seems a little more subdued these days. He’s 72 now, but it’s more than that.

I think it’s the fact that unlike during the earlier Zip Connolly trials, he’s been back in Boston for a while now. He sees his family, they can read the papers, and even though “hit man” is a fearsome job 
description, obviously it’s not anything to brag about.

And by the way, Johnny was absolutely correct on the witness stand yesterday. I did name the biography about him “Hitman” — actually, it was one of my neighbors in Florida. And yes, it is named “Hitman” because I thought that title would sell more.

 

And etc.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Kevin Cullen also addressed what label should be attached to Martorano:

[A]ccording to Johnny Martorano, he was no hitman. He murdered people. Many people. But he didn’t do it for money. He did it for friendship. He did it for honor. He did it for blah, blah, blah.

Seriously, I don’t know what’s more ridiculous: Whitey’s claim that he was never an informant, or Johnny Martorano’s insistence that he was never a hitman.

 

Hey, Kevin, don’t you know:  That’s “Hitman” with a capital Howie. Just ask ‘im.

 

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Herald Hitches Carr to Globe

June 9, 2013

Apparently Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr has run out of ways to milk his presence on Whitey Bulger’s witness list, which would presumably keep him from covering the mobster’s trial in person.

So the feisty local tabloid has followed in the Boston Globe’s footsteps and asked the court to let their Howie go.

jacobs_howie_3-6288449Herald wants columnist in courtroom

The Boston Herald filed a request in federal court Saturday to exclude the newspaper’s columnist Howie Carr from a sequestration order that would prevent him from sitting in the courtroom during the trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious gangster who has been the subject of countless Carr columns and several books.

The motion came a day after US District Court Judge Denise Casper granted a similar request from The Boston Globe to exclude veteran journalists, reporter Shelley Murphy and columnist Kevin Cullen, who wrote a book together about Bulger, from the same sequestration order. “The Boston Herald and Mr. Carr respectfully submit that the reasons supporting exemption of those journalists similarly require exclusion of Mr. Carr from the sequestration order,” the newspaper’s lawyer, Elizabeth A. Ritvo, said in the filing Saturday.

 

Funny thing is, that report appeared in the Globe. Nothing in the Herald about it.

The hardreading staff is checking with our Walt Whitman desk for clarification.

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Hark! The Herald! (Whitey You Can Drive My Carr Edition)

June 1, 2013

From our Walt Whitman desk

As the hardreading staff noted earlier, the Boston Herald is all aglow over the imminent trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, especially the personal involvement of its star columnist Howie Carr (who “vowed to watch Whitey every step of the way through judgment day,” according to the feisty local tabloid).

And maybe testify on the mobster’s behalf. From today’s front page:

 

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And the navel-gazing piece:

 

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Yeah yeah – I’m Spartacus. Lede:

It’s not exactly the resume-enhancer I’d have picked for myself — “defense witness for Whitey Bulger.”20130601howie

But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it either. And I’m not sure how serious Whitey’s lawyers are. Maybe they’re just trying to keep me and the Globe reporters out of the courtroom.

There’s an old saying in the law: If you have the facts, pound the facts. If you have the law, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.

Hey, J.W. Carney, lay off that table. Put your shoe back on.

 

Carr says he’ll probably “be relieved of my awesome responsibilities as a defense witness Monday, when the feds and Whitey’s lawyers make their final motions.”

That’s a relief, eh? He can then go back to “watching Whitey every step of the way” yak yak yak.

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