That shame came to NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams only recently is probably the most surprising news of all. He is the ultimate expression of the celebrity newsperson, overpaid, overdressed, overexposed, over-inclined to be an entertainer all the while asserting a claim to be a top notch reporter. As the NY Times' Maureen Dowd wrote, "THIS was a bomb that had …
Chris Christie, Rand Paul support parents with heads in sand
California is sometimes thought of as la-la land, so it shouldn't surprise us that it is the epicenter of the irrational parental movement against immunization. The shocking map of the resulting outbreak of measles, a disease virtually eradicated by 2000 thanks to vaccination, dramatizes the horror. Last year there were more than 600 cases in …
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A modest proposal for the House Speaker
Three Massachusetts Speakers indicted, the most recent, Sal De Masi, sent to the slammer for eight years. With Massachusetts reeling from the scandalous pattern, Representative Bob DeLeo became the man of the hour in 2009 when, on becoming Speaker, he successfully pushed for term limits for the position. DeLeo ascribed the change as reflecting the need for …
Deflate-gate calls for willing suspension of disbelief
To enjoy the performance at the movies and in theater, audience members often have to suspend their connection with reality. So, too, with another form of entertainment, professional football. Is it really possible that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, legendary masters of detail and planned execution, knew absolutely nothing about the under-inflation of footballs? Remember Captain …
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Walsh bows to Boston workers gag order
If you're one of Boston's 18,000 municipal employees, you just lost some important First Amendment rights. If your paycheck says your employer is the City of Boston, your boss, Mayor Marty Walsh, has contractually barred you from saying anything negative about the prospect of hosting the Olympics in 2024. Section 2.05 of the Joinder …
Rise up, ye garden party skunks
Driving down the Mass Pike the day after Boston was tapped for the 2024 U.S. summer Olympics bid, there on the WGBH electronic billboard, the five Olympic rings logo against our beautiful skyline. A frisson of excitement. Wow; it's coming here! Congratulations to the bidding group. And in a split second, I wondered what (and who) …
People protests in Paris diluted by political hypocrisy
In Paris on Sunday more than 1.3 million people solemnly marched a cold and windy 3.2 kilometers from La Place de la Republique to La Place de la Nation The crowd moved along the symbolically significant Boulevard Voltaire, the Enlightenment philosopher known for his biting satires and defense of free speech. This largest demonstration in …
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Governor Baker: can he be a compassionate fiscal manager?
The late Governor Mario Cuomo, a stirring orator, told the once significant The New Republic in 1985, "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose" In a clear break from his predecessor Deval Patrick, Governor Charlie Baker may never deliver soaring rhetoric. He didn't even do that during the poetry part of the campaign. But Baker was …
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Mourning Paris journalists and attack on press freedom
If I were technologically proficient, I'd edge this blog in black. How profoundly sad is the grievous slaughter of 12 yesterday in Paris, journalists and their police protectors at the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. What an unspeakable attack on press freedom and the underpinnings of democracy. What a barbaric assault on humanity! Say what you want …
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Ed Brooke won and lost with grace
When two-term Massachusetts Senator Ed Brooke woke at 3:30 in the morning on November 7, 1978 the election was already over. And just after 8 p.m. that evening, as the first votes trickled in, his long-time aide Roger Woodworth knew that the sad outcome was confirmed. "I'm afraid it's not going to work tonight, kids," he …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 