Don't tell me the end of summer isn't until the third week in September. Virtually everyone understands summer ends on Labor Day (or the Friday before for those who want to beat the rush.) The leaves are beginning to turn. Crickets are making a racket at night. Returning college students are clogging the streets with …
Category: Media
Whitey withdrawal symptoms?
At first I thought a verdict in the trial of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger would spur profound withdrawal symptoms. I'd be missing the daily, nay, hourly updates on the grizzly testimony given about the murderous career of the Hub's most notorious and despicable psychopath. Despite having followed Whitey as a journalist, despite having covered his ever-loyal brother, …
John Henry gets new toy: Globe future still in question
I don't know John Henry. We've been introduced at fundraising events a couple of times; there was no extended conversation. He seems very nice, if shy. I have no reason to think he'll ruin the Boston Globe, which he has just purchased for $70 million from the NY Times, by running it into the ground. He seems a …
Continue reading John Henry gets new toy: Globe future still in question
Kirby Perkins A+ scholarships distinguish WCVB-TV5
Shootings, muggings, fires, crashes, sports and weather-- all the stuff of local television. Then there are the Kirby Perkins A+ scholarship segments. Kirby was a Channel 5 reporter who especially loved politics and sports. The station's "High Five" series had for years celebrated high school athletes. But he thought that academic performance should also be honored. …
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Media need to do heavy lifting in Boston mayoral race
When the Boston marathon was bombed, we all shared the grief and noted that "We are Boston." So, too, when the capital city selects a new mayor, the people of Greater Boston, not just its voting residents, have a stake in who succeeds 20-year incumbent Tom Menino. As John Nucci observed in the Boston Herald, what the …
Continue reading Media need to do heavy lifting in Boston mayoral race
Kerry shares world view with editorialists
"Our credibility in one place affects our credibility in another,” Secretary of State John Kerry told about 20 members of the Association of Opinion Journalists in a briefing Monday at the State Department. Syria's use of sarin gas “is a red line for the President,” but we’re “not talking about boots on the ground.” We …
Local media continue to shine
In the early days following the Marathon bombings, the media made plenty of mistakes as reporters rushed to tell the story. Reports surfaced that the two suspects were under arrest when they were not. The boat in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found was outside the police search perimeter, then inside, then, well it's still not clear. …
We are Boston. We rejoin the world.
Like Punxsutawney Phil emerging from his cave in Pennsylvania, squinting from the sunlight, folks in my hometown emerged from lock-down yesterday morning. On the surface, it was an ordinary weekend morning in spring, a stop at Peet's for coffee, the dry cleaners, drugstore, the usual. But of course nothing was really usual as we started picking up the …
Boston Olympic bid a silly diversion
Score Boston Mayor Tom Menino:1; Boston Globe:0 on the proposal to bring the Olympics to Boston in 2024. Opined an editorial, a chance to host the Olympics is "too rare to pass up without further consideration." Really? As the Mayor restated Thursday on WGBH's Greater Boston, the city has too many other, higher priority needs - …
This time, the Phoenix does not rise
The announcement yesterday that the Boston Phoenix is ceasing publication marks the end of an era, an era of substantive, long-form journalism. Jim Barron and I wrote for the paper back in the 1970's. It was the place to be, along with The Village Voice, the best of alternative journalism. Back in 1975, Jim Barron and …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 