In all the years I’ve been a reporter, no one has ever sent me an anonymous message wishing I was raped again. I’ve never been the subject of tweets calling me the c-word, relating to the female anatomy. No one has ever written to me that they hoped my significant other beat me. But, then, […]
Media and Journalism
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Selective House briefings
When House Ways and Means chairman Brian Dempsey opened the floor to questions from reporters at a Wednesday afternoon press briefing on the just-released House budget for 2017, he was probably ready to address use of one-time revenues, chapter 70 school aid, or any other details of the $49.4 billion spending plan. He clearly wasn’t […]
Posted inUncategorized
Quincy dumps GateHouse marketing bid
THE CITY OF QUINCY has told GateHouse Media, which owns the local Patriot Ledger and hundreds of other newspapers, that its bid for a city marketing contract is dead. A spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch said the GateHouse submission didn’t meet the specified criteria, and added that it was a nonstarter anyway because of the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
One on One with George Regan
Photograph by Frank Curran The scene: The Union Wharf office of George Regan, the president of Regan Communications Group and long-ago press secretary to former mayor Kevin White. His dog, Brother Bailey, named after former Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey, is up on the table in one corner and 400 pictures, most of them of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
A Marblehead housewife
“Darn, I knew this was going to happen someday. If you’re reading this, I’m dead.” So begins Barbara Anderson’s final column in today’s Salem News. Anderson died Friday at the age of 73 after a long battle with leukemia. If you’re under 45, that name may look familiar but mostly from occasional quotes in budget […]
Posted inThe Download
GateHouse creates its own conflict
As the print news business continues to contract, there’s a push on by the suits in the corporate suites to find revenues wherever possible. That push can sometimes blur lines and create perception problems for the folks on the front lines of reporting. GateHouse Media, one of the country’s largest chains of daily and weekly […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Is the media to blame for Trump?
It’s become almost accepted wisdom that the news media have fanned the flame of Donald Trump, basking in his click-bait commentary and covering his every move as if he was a form of entertainment and not a candidate for president. President Obama said as much earlier this week. But Zeynep Tufekci, who studies social media […]
Posted inThe Download
Capital concerns at the Globe
For those of us in the news business, the Boston Globe’s shrinking Capital section is an alarming sight. The nation is in the midst of one of the most interesting and important presidential campaigns in decades. We’ve got one US senator who is political catnip, a Republican governor who has the highest popularity ratings in […]
Posted inThe Download
The Times (and its paragraphs) they are a changin’
The New York Times took heat this week for tinkering with an online story about Bernie Sanders several hours after it was posted, turning a favorable report that the candidate eagerly passed along to his supporters into a far more muted review of his legislative success as a lawmaker. Was it another example of a […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Spotlight sends out a survey
The Boston Globe Spotlight Team earlier this month sent an email to nearly 200 private, independent schools in New England asking them to fill out an online survey documenting instances of sexual harassment and abuse at their institutions and how those situations were handled going back as far as 25 years. “We need your help,” […]