By Bruce Mohl As of this afternoon, 90 comments had been posted on Boston.com about the Boston Globe’s story about Don Chiofaro’s clash with Mayor Thomas Menino, and they seemed […]
Media and Journalism
Posted inPolitics
CW on Broadside
CW senior investigative reporter Jack Sullivan joins Jim Braude on NECN’s “Broadside” to discuss the MBTA’s failing concrete railroad ties and the state of investigative journalism. Here’s the link.
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Playing the ‘comment’ game
By Bruce Mohl The reader comments at the end of online newspaper stories are apparently becoming a battle ground in the fight over a proposed high-rise tower along the Rose […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Newspaper endorsements still matter
I’ve been on the “ed board” circuit lately—tromping around the state and attending meetings with newspaper editorial boards. The goal is for my clients to wow the opinion-makers with their […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Ethics complaint against Ethics Commission
Jack Authelet, the retired managing editor of the Foxboro Reporter weekly newspaper, filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after what he said were inappropriate remarks by a commission […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Missing the Scott Brown juggernaut
By Gabrielle Gurley This week, Boston University and The Pew Research’s Center Project for Excellence in Journalism published Hidden In Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown. The report dissects national […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Globe’s dominating presence at the GOP convention
By Jack Sullivan If the GOP state convention in Worcester over the weekend is any indication, the Globe is still the paper of record for all things local, especially when […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Sarah Palin: No shades of gray
By Bruce Mohl I went to the Boston Common this morning because I was curious about Sarah Palin. I wanted to see for myself whether she was the vacuous caricature […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Yin and yang
By Bruce Mohl The Boston Globe and the Herald cover the same city, but sometimes you’d never know if from reading the respective newspapers. Today, for example, the two papers […]
Posted inPolitics
Free speech dust-up in Southborough
UPDATE: In the story below, I incorrectly wrote the Southborough Board of Selectmen sent a third letter to Susan Fitzgerald demanding she reveal the identity of one of the posters […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The Monitor’s web-first approach
Nearly one year after the newspaper presses stopped rolling at The Christian Science Monitor, editor John Yemma continues to fine-tune the 102-year-old international news outlet’s transformation from a daily into […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
News cuts tilt coverage toward upscale
It is now widely recognized that daily newspapers, amid the upheaval that is occurring in the journalism business, have been cutting back on the origination of serious news coverage. What […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Brian McGrory goes soft
By Michael Jonas Did Brian McGrory send any signals that he’d give Lawrence Mayor — and state Rep. — Willie Lantigua kid-gloves treatment in order to secure what McGrory boasts […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Boston Globe goes hunting for bad comments about Goodwill
Today's Boston Globe story on a Goodwill second-hand store opening in one of Boston's trendier neighborhoods promises more than it can deliver. Here are the headlines: With thrift store coming, […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Take the Red Line to….Chinatown?
Harvard economist Ed Glaeser offers a thought-provoking argument in today's Globe that rational planning should dictate that we focus transit spending in densely populated urban areas and not get taken […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Life after newspapers
Boston’s largest newspaper seems to have dodged the closure bullet for now, but the question of what the city might look like without it – and what might spring up […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
MassINC is proud to be your “pure voice of gloom”
"Urban Writer" Jim Miara thinks I may be trying too hard to put a bad spin on the news that fewer people are moving out of Massachusetts: Sometimes the glass […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Would Massachusetts become more conservative without the Globe?
The New York Times Co. is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe if it doesn't get concessions from the newspaper's unions – which is causing media observers to speculate anew […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Figuring out how to save the Boston Globe
Media Nation's Dan Kennedy (a regular contributor to CommonWealth) has a typically thoughtful post describing five ways to save the "shrinking" Boston Globe. For example, he suggests a better integration […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Hub of politics no more
In my final column yesterday for the final edition of the Globe's City Weekly section, I ponder Boston's increasingly anemic political scene. One area I don't explore there is the impact of the media itself. […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
How long will a bleed lede?
It may be an oxymoron to say newspapers could become nonprofits, since so many of them already are – in the sense of not having any profits, that is. For some […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The Boston Globe massacres statistical science
Crime in Massachusetts may possibly be going up, and if it is, the "swooning economy" could be an explanation, the Boston Globe reports today. The evidence: "Police departments say they have noticed […]
Posted inPolitics
Second life
Sometime this April, one of New England’s most venerable daily newspapers will cease to be a daily newspaper.The Christian Science Monitor, which marked its 100th anniversary this past November, is […]
