August 2, 2021
Saturday’s New York Times featured a pretty explosive story by reporter Julia Jacobs about a former Boston Ballet principal dancer and her husband.
Former Dance Instructor Accused of Sexual Assault in Lawsuit
Mitchell Taylor Button was accused of abuse, and his wife, Dusty Button, a dancer with a large Instagram following, was accused of participating in some of it but not named as a defendant.
A pair of professional dancers filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a former dance teacher of 
sexually assaulting and abusing them, and accusing his wife — an internet-famous ballerina who has danced with the Boston Ballet — of participating in some of that abuse.
The former teacher — who has been known by several names, but is called Mitchell Taylor Button in the suit — is married to Dusty Button, who was a principal dancer with the Boston Ballet and who has amassed more than 300,000 Instagram followers and several corporate sponsorships with viral photos and videos of her dancing.
Locally, WBUR’s Amelia Mason also had the story over the weekend.
One of the plaintiffs, Sage Humphries, is currently a dancer with the Boston Ballet. In 2017, she was a member of Boston Ballet II, the company’s apprenticeship program. The suit says that Dusty Button, then a principal dancer with the Boston Ballet, lured Humphries into an increasingly abusive and controlling relationship with herself and her husband. According to the suit, Mitchell Taylor Button sexually assaulted Humphries on a regular basis over the course of some months and performed violent sex acts on her without her consent. It says that on several occasions, Dusty Button held Humphries down while her husband sexually assaulted the young dancer. The lawsuit also accuses Mitchell Taylor Button of verbal and physical abuse.
The Boston Ballet has released this statement in support of Sara Humphries.
Who we haven’t heard from (just before 6 pm on Monday) are the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. Talk about being a step behind . . .
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Amelia Mason, Boston Ballet, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dusty Button, Julia Jacobs, Mitchell Taylor Button, New York Times, WBUR | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 5, 2016
As one of the Boston Herald’s 17 home subscribers, the hardreading staff has been waiting patiently for the feisty local tabloid to crow about its successful delivery of the paper while the Boston Globe’s home delivery has gone Chernobyl.
But . . . nothing.
And today . . . still nothing.
Your fraidy local tabloid’s Tuesday Business section.
As WGBH’s Unsinkable Emily Rooney (and our former partner in airtime) has written, “The Boston Herald has disgracefully reneged it’s [sic] journalistic duty to report this story for one simple reason, The Globe butters the Herald’s bread by being its printer.”
Then again, as Globe reporter Maria Cramer said on WBUR’s Radio Boston yesterday, the Herald has never been shy before about smacking the Globe around.
So why now?
Hey, Herald house harridan Howie Carr(toon): Wanna weigh in on this?
As opposed to your latest mailed-in column?
Or maybe you’re fraidy, too.
P.S. Oh, yeah – the Globe failed to deliver today’s paper to the hardlyreading staff (we’re now 4-for-9 in the Big Meltdown). And the “delivery delay” list is currently at 113. Burt here’s the funny thing: Globe CEO went on WGBH’s Greater Boston last night and said the really serious delivery problems are in Newton and Pembroke. Except . . . Pembroke isn’t even on the list today. Geez – these people can screw up a screw up.
4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, feisty local tabloid, fraidy local tabloid, Greater Boston, home delivery meltdown, Howie Carr, Howie Carr(toon), Maria Cramer, Mike Sheehan, Newton, Pembroke, Radio Boston, Unsinkable Emily Rooney, WBUR, WGBH | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
June 11, 2015
As you splendid readers well know, the Boston news media – from the Boston Business Journal to WGBH to Boston Magazine to WBUR to the Boston Globe – are on Store 2024 like Brown on Williamson.
But not the Boston Herald.
Sure, the feisty local tabloid has provided some basic coverage of the five-ring monte Olympic bid, but it’s not breaking news the way other local outlets have. The Herald these days is more about Deval Patrick’s financial shenanigans.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Exhibit A: Yesterday’s Joe Battenfeld column.
Patrick Secretly Diverted Junket Cash
Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and a deal with a federally subsidized tourism venture backed by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Herald investigation has found.
The maneuver to fatten the hidden “trust”
accounts with millions from state quasi-public agencies allowed Patrick to skirt the state Legislature and evade state budget cutbacks during the recession, the Herald found.
Elsewhere in the piece, the number seems to be over $37 million. Helpful chart:
Whatever.
Exhibit B: Today’s Herald page 5 (with bonus Inexplicable Green 1).
See? Even the paper’s Olympic coverage is part of its Devalue Pak.
Meanwhile, the latest Boston NOlympics revelations include this in the BBJ, which suggests that those expecting the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to “save the Boston Olympics” Must Be Taking Acid. The Boston Globe contributes this front-page piece about Boston 2024 relocating the Widett Circle food wholesalers to the Seaport (one really smart person we know thinks the entire Boston 2024 effort is just a land grab to develop the New Boston Food Market site). The Globe also features this Metro piece about the full-court press on the Boston 2024 organizers to finally get down to specifics.
WBUR also has a couple of new reports today about bigger Olympic footprints, and WGBH tosses in this piece about new venues and public relations.
But the Boston Herald? Call it the shelfie local tabloid.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2024 Olympics, BBJ, Boston 2024, Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Boston NOlympics, Deval Patrick, Devalue Pak, feisty local tabloid, five-ring monte, like Brown on Williamson, MBTA=Must Be Taking Acid, New Boston Food Market, Seaport, shelfie local tabloid, Store 2024, WBUR, WGBH, Widett Circle | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
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.
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?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: A Fear of Going to School, Asma Khalid, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, David Abel, DCF, Erin Smith, Matt Stout, Richard family, Shawn Bodden, Sigma Delta Chi awards, Society of Professional Journalists, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
November 13, 2014
The Boston Globe is having quite a financial fling with the University of Massachusetts these days. First it was this “Special Supplement to the Boston Globe” that ran this past Sunday.
As the hardreading staff noted, that’s “Special” as in “Advertising,” which the Globe would have stated explicitly if it cared to be honest with its readers.
Now comes this doozie in today’s edition of the $tately local broadsheet (photos courtesy of the Missus).
That was followed by this:
Along with this:
And this:
At least they labeled the wraparound “Advertisement,” eh? But it’s the leasing out of the Globe banner that’s the problem here. Funny thing is, ten years ago the Globe rejected that kind of sellout. From the January 19, 2004 Boston Business Journal:
Globe rejected a front-page advertisement for JetBlue
The Boston Globe apparently rejected a proposal by JetBlue Airways Corp. to run the same full front-page advertisement touting the airline’s arrival at Logan International Airport that the Boston Herald published last week amid voluble criticism.
The Boston Herald ended up running the ad on Jan. 7, catching considerable flak for accepting an ad that one source valued at least at $25,000. But a JetBlue official told the Boston Business Journal that the Globe also was approached with the same opportunity.
And turned it down, sort of.
Globe spokesman B. Maynard Scarborough said he believed the newspaper’s advertising department discussed selling a “wrap” to JetBlue, but no deal was reached. Such a wrap would not have contained mock editorial content, he said, adding the Globe does not sell Page 1 advertising and has no plans to do so.
Well, that’s now “inoperative,” as they say.
Here’s what the Herald did run (via WBUR’s Bob Oakes).
That’s the actual front page on the left, the ad front page on the right.
And while we’re tripping down Memory Lane with local journos, here’s what the redoubtable Dan Kennedy wrote in the Boston Phoenix Media Log back then:
[A]t the very least, the front should have been prominently labeled as an ad. This isn’t just a violation of the traditional wall separating business and editorial – this is an out-and-out demolition.
Today at Media Nation, Dan wrote this: “If the Globe hasn’t crossed a line, perhaps it has moved the line past where we always thought it was.”
Fair enough. But to us, they did cross the line.
6 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: $tately local broadsheet, Bob Oakes, Boston 2014, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Phioenix, Dan Kennedy, jetBlue, Media Log, Media Nation, the Missus, UMass, UMass Boston, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 17, 2014
It’s awards season for newspapers right now, and Boston hit the dailies double in the latest journalism lovefest.
From the Boston Globe:
Nice, eh? Spread the love to WBUR and the Herald, even if the latter did catch a bit of an elbow:
Both the Globe and the Boston Herald took first place for deadline reporting on the Boston Marathon bombings. The Globe won in the category for newspapers with more than 100,000, while the Herald won for newspapers with daily circulation of more than 50,000 but less than 100,000.
And crosstown at the firsty local tabloid? Here’s how it played:
Actually, call it the frosty local tabloid. And call it a sore winner.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Greene, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Marathon bombings, Commonhealth, firsty local tabloid, frosty local tabloid, Neil Swidey, Sigma Delta Chi awards, Society of Professional Journalists, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 13, 2014
As the hardwalking staff set out on its post-prandial promenade last night, we happened upon WBUR’s rebroadcast of Boston Red Sox/Boston Globe owner John Henry’s address to the local Chamber of Commerce last week. Most news reports mentioned that the Globe would explore new ways of attracting advertisers and sponsors to help build its revenue base, but the Boston Business Journal was a bit more forthcoming:
[Henry] heralded the Globe’s ongoing roll-out of a new, sponsored sports product — The Score — while saying little about how the new section will differ from the newspaper’s traditional sports coverage or why advertisers might direct their marketing dollars toward one option versus the other.
Question #1: Where is the sponsored content in The Score? We’re looking at Sunday’s edition of the “sponsored sports product” and all we see is an ad for Sullivan Tire, an ad for Jaguar Woburn, and a whole lot of nothing else.
Question #2: What exactly will Globe sponsors – assuming there are any – get for their money?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Business Journal, Boston Globe, Boston Red Sox, Globe sponsor, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, iTunes, John Henry, The Score, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 11, 2013
Dueling book plugs in the local dailies the past two days, starting with this Boston Sunday Globe Page One pompom:
A window into Whitey’s brutal life and mind
New biography traces Bulger’s rise, reign, and the reckoning ahead
As he sits brooding in his drab cell awaiting trial, South Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger is telling friends that while he feels tortured by his cramped captivity, with its isolation, strip searches, and dismal food, he is ready and eager for “the big show” — the trial where he will defend his sense of honor if not exactly his innocence.
But however defiant he remains, Bulger was prepared to give prosecutors an easy way out, saying he offered himself up for execution if the government would let the woman he loves walk free.
“I never loved anyone like I do her and offered my life [execution] if they would free her — but no they want me to suffer — they know this is the worst punishment for me by hurting her!” Bulger wrote to a friend last year as his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, faced the prospect of years in prison for her devotion to him . . .
“Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice,” written by the authors of this article (Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy), with editorial support from The Globe, reveals a host of new information about Bulger, from his pursuit of domestic tranquillity in a tangled romantic triangle, to his seeking out a psychiatrist a la Tony Soprano, to his heretofore little-known role as an agent of mayhem during the city’s school desegregation crisis.
Lots of juicy stuff in the “new and comprehensive biography” that just hit bookstores. Meanwhile, columnist Howie Carr blurbs a different Bulger book in today’s Boston Herald .
Book: Whitey’s rage at black prez led to his capture
Can Whitey Bulger blame his own raging case of Obama Derangement Syndrome rather than a tabby cat for his 2011 capture?
That’s the suggestion in a bombshell new biography, “Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss,” by veteran Boston reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill.
When Whitey and moll Catherine Greig had been living in Santa Monica, Calif., as “Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Gasko,” Greig became close to Icelandic model Anna Bjornsdottir, bonding over the care of a stray cat. Whitey often joined them outside their apartment building.
But, Lehr and O’Neill write, Bjornsdottir and Whitey never spoke again after she “unabashedly” expressed admiration for the first black president.
“He practically exploded … disgusted that she could admire a black man as president … Nothing was the same after . . . “
Carr conveniently fails to mention 1) that Lehr and O’Neill are former Boston Globe reporters, and 2) that Cullen and Murphy have a new Whitey bio as well.
The Globe piece is more magnanimous:
[Bulger’s] first known cooperation with law enforcement was in 1956, when he agreed to identify his bank robbery accomplices so that his then-girlfriend would not face criminal charges for accompanying him on a trip that culminated with a bank robbery in Indiana. That early turn as a snitch was first reported by WBUR, citing documents obtained by two former Globe reporters, Gerard O’Neill and Dick Lehr, who also have a biography of Bulger coming out soon: “Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Crime Boss.”
And getting even more so by the day.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Catherine Greig, Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill, Howie Carr, Kevin Cullen, Shelley Murphy, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 26, 2012
On Friday, as noted by the ever-alert Dan Kennedy of Media Nation (whose new page looks mighty familiar, no?), the Boston Globe acknowledged that this August 17th editorial had ripped off this Todd Domke post on WBUR’s website.
(Tip o’ the pixel to the splendid commenter who sent the hardreading staff this last night: “The plagiarism flap over an unnamed Globe editorial which copied words and structure of a commentary (on Biden’s chains comment) that Todd Domke wrote for BUR web site may be in both papers tomorrow. Dan Kennedy has an account on his blog. BG wants to put out the story tomorrow and reveal punishment before the Herald blows it open. Talk of suspension for yet unnamed writer. Ain’t it great to live in a 2 paper town?”)
But, no – no damage control in the Globe, no damage in the Herald, where this kind of story is normally mother’s milk.(Too busy darning those Sox to bash the crosstown rival? Tsk tsk.)
Jim Romenesko picked it up, but no play we can find beyond that.
Just like Isaac, this is gonna pop sooner or later.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: back in chains, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dan Kennedy, Jim Romenesko, Joe Biden, Media Nation, plagiarism, Todd Domke, WBUR | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
August 22, 2012
From the evidence in today’s Boston dailies, Taylor Swift is not the most welcome guest in and around town.
Start with the Boston Herald, where the Track Gals (and Megan!) produced this startling report:
Kennedy mom: Taylor Swift crashed wedding
Taylor Swift crashed the Kennedy wedding in Boston over the weekend and did not leave after being twice asked to do so, the mother of the bride, Victoria Gifford Kennedy, told the Track yesterday.
But Swift’s publicist insisted that the country superstar was a welcome guest and that the bride was happy to have her share the spotlight.
A source at the hotel reported seeing Swift being asked to leave the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel where Kyle Kennedy, the daughter of the late Michael Kennedy and Victoria Gifford Kennedy, was celebrating her marriage to Liam Kerr on Saturday. So we rang up Vicki for the 411.
“They texted me an hour before the wedding and asked if they could come,” Vicki Kennedy said. “I responded with a very clear, ‘Please do not come.’ They came anyway. … I personally went up to Ms. Swift, whose entrance distracted the entire event, politely introduced myself to her, and asked her as nicely as I could to leave. It was like talking to a ghost. She seemed to look right past me.”
Funny, she does the same thing to us.
Over at the Globe, the hardreading staff’s plaintive request on WBUR’s Radio Boston last Friday – namely, would someone figure out if Swift actually bought a house on the Cape or not? – was very kindly answered in todays Names column. And the answer is: Nobody knows.
It’s been widely rumored that the country singer, who’s currently dating Conor Kennedy, plunked down $4.9 million — a tiny fraction of her sizable fortune — to buy the 4,440-square-foot gray shingle spread across the street from Ethel Kennedy ’s place in Hyannis Port.
But it’s tough to confirm. The deed on the property is held by Coleman Limited Partnership of Greenwich, Conn., and calls to the previous owner, Nancy Coleman, were not returned. Meanwhile, an employee at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds — who told us he’s talked to “tons” of reporters trying to confirm the sale — said if Swift did indeed purchase the place, her name would not necessarily appear on public records.
Okay, then. But one thing the Namesniks do know: “While Swift herself is welcome in town, some residents we spoke to aren’t so wild about the press and paparazzi that have followed her.”
Well, at least we’ve got that cleared up.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Conor Kennedy, Inside Track, Kyle Kennedy, Liam Kerr, Names, Radio Boston, Taylor Swift, Track Gals (and Megan!), Victoria Gifford Kennedy, WBUR, wedding crasher | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 