The Boston Herald today pokes fun at Mayor Tom Menino, who criticized the media yesterday for what he calls their overemphasis on violent crime. The Herald’s Laurel Sweet reports on Menino’s church appearance in Dorchester:
“A lot of people want to believe it’s out of control. It’s not out of control,” Menino assured a packed house at Greater Love Tabernacle in the heart of Dorchester’s shooting gallery, where he was welcomed by thunderous applause.
“This city works. The problem is you’re always seeing headlines about the bad news. I wish we had a good news newspaper. The Good News of Boston. The bad guys don’t control this city, they only control the headlines.”
But I thought there already was a Good News of Boston — the Boston City Communicator, forthrightly labeled “Mayor Menino’s ‘Communicator'” in this press release marking its January launch and immediately dubbed the Tommy Times by the Herald. The announcement sparked a wave of derision on Universal Hub, with local blogger Carpundit calling it “a cynical and horrible idea.”
I know the Tommy Times is only a quarterly — but that means it should be just about time for another edition. Suggested lead headline: “City Peaceful, Prosperous Thanks to Mayor.”
The Boston Globe also covered Menino’s remarks, but Maria Cramer’s story doesn’t mention His Honor’s media critique. Adam Reilly points out that Cramer caught up with the mayor at a different church.
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Mark
2 different churches Dan.
adamg
Yeah, it’s not like the Globe never writes about good stuff – like that “absolutely incredible” homeless kid who’s at the top of her class.In any case, not to play Pollyana or anything, but one could make the argument that Boston is not really “paralyzed” by violent crime (as Camera Curtis Sliwa harrumphed when he jetted into town). There are certain, well defined hot spots where things are out of control, but most of the city is actually seeing a decrease in violent crime – and while our murder rate is higher than New York’s, we’re no Baltimore or Detroit, not even close. I don’t worry when my daughter plays outside and I’ve never felt particularly unsafe on the Orange Line.That having been said, thank goodness the media finally seems to be paying consistent attention to the awful, awful stuff that has been going on for the past two years or so in those hot-spot areas. Good to see Brian McGrory actually writing about the city he allegedly works in, instead of more lame Hingham thumbsuckers. As stupid as Bruce Wall’s flack jackets for tourists idea is (please – violent crime is not an issue in the Back Bay or Beacon Hill and tourists generally are not detouring onto Geneva Avenue), maybe the attention will, finally, get something done (and maybe, just maybe, Wall and Menino will stop bellowing at each other and start working together).
Bruce
yeah! Damn those cold-hearted local media outlets! What’s wrong with them? Is it really asking too much of them to take the story about a kid getting shot in the head on a crowded bus in the middle of the afternoon, and come with a more positive headline for it?“City youth’s marksmanship skills improving””48 MBTA bus passengers not shot in head””New stain-resistant bus seats drive down MBTA cleaning costs”Piece of cake!