Fangs for the memories

I just canceled my globe subscription after yet another repugnant Jacoby column on gay marriage. Look, I get it: Jeff hates gay people. Why the hell should I pay for him to write another putrid column about it?

I dunno. Youthful idealism loves a righteous bloodletting as long as they’re on the right side of the knife. Or the left side, as the case may be.I’m 32 and I’ve been saying “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” for well over a decade.

Outrage???WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan says in a new book that President George W. Bush “veered terribly off course” and was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” Politico.com reported on Tuesday.In the memoir due out next week, McClellan also says Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war and says the Washington press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to it, according to the Web site.McClellan also takes the administration to task for its performance after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, saying the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” Politico reported.Intelligent outrage took a pass on the USA 25 years ago.

Geesh, Dan, what the heck is your problem?You say you want bile — the classic curmudgeon, like the late, great Mike Royko.But you don’t want Mike Barnicle back, even though he has a proven ability to, er, “channel” Royko. Helllooooooo pick one. =)

Dan’s right: The columnists sure don’t work for their money like they used to. Why is that? Has the act of writing become more difficult? Are there less things to write about?I do think the papers should take a page (*ahem*) from the playbook of none other than Burger King. Instead of wasting their time trying to attract an audience that not only has tuned the Globe out but indeed never even tuned them in, the Globe should concentrate on the audience it does have, the readers who like the medium and the topics, and give them more of that. (BK turned the financial corner when it dumped its “health” menu in favor of even higher calorie, higher fat content burgers.) Know your market, and drive margins from what will likely be a smaller number of customers but whom are willing to pay more than the general masses for it.

Mike: Not to quibble over a rare point of agreement, but I would argue that Walker, Abraham and Cullen are probably having to work harder than they would if they had beats and could skewer Menino, DiMasi, Patrick, et al. on a regular basis. Digging out those mini-features is not easy.

DK – the problem with permanent stringers is that they drink the Kool Aid. They start out fresh and brazen, and after @ 18 mo., they’re copy/pasting press releases (I’m thinking of the fifth floor revolving door of the Herald’s State House bureau in particular – Cosmo Macerdo, John Chesto, Liz Beasley, Kim Atkins, now Casey Ross – although all of them pale compared to Frank Phillips, who takes so much dictation he’s turned Kool Aid purple!).

Dan, I agree with you more often than not. It’s when I disagree that I write.One note: In the Boston piece, Gonz claims Edes left the Globe. I thought his buyout request was rejected. Did Gonz jump the gun, or did I miss something?

Dan, Yvonne Abraham’s columns are by far the worst things to happen to the Globe ever. For example, with today’s opus, she writes about SALEM. SALEM DAN, SALEM! That isn’t even metro! I think the point from Gonzales’s column that I agreed with the most was the lack of coverage for any of the stuff regarding Sal, Menino, or anyone on Beacon Hill. While i get that all 3 probably aren’t going to replace steve bailey, I don’t need to hear about the poor immigrant child over and over again – and the Column that Yvonne wrote…about herself…becoming a citizen was boring at best and made me want to shoot myself at worst. I give up. Royko was good because he talked to regular people and captured what it was like to be a Chicagoan. None of these people relate us to our city.

A few quick points: 1) I rarely read the Globe anymore so I don’t know if their Metro columns are “blah” or not. But I do know that Yvonne Abraham is a fine reporter and is capable of “gotcha” work if allowed. 2) I rarely agree with Jeff Jacoby but he has had at least one good column in the last five years: The one about expanding the U.S. House of Representatives to 1,200-plus instead of 400-plus reps. It’s a brilliant idea.3) When I did read the Globe, I really liked the hard-hitting and smart ass stuff. I mean, who can forget the classic line by Brian McGrory about not getting between Boston City Councilor Mike Ross and a Nikon? Classic stuff for a classic newspaper. Sigh. Where has it all gone?

Dan, re your suggestion that the Globe station a culumnist at the State House: it was my understanding that Scott Lehigh is stationed there already, though he runs on the op-ed page. As for the columnists, I think a problem is they do not run often enough per week to forge a real identity. Despite your well-known problems with Barnicle, he was the last Globe columnist to develop a real readership and following. He also met the true columnist test: you may love him, you may hate him, but you read him. I don’t know anyone who reads Adrian Walker. Yvonne Abraham should be given some slack, given that she just got back from maternity leave. Cullen is OK, but I’ve always thought Peter Gelzenis would be a good fit over there.