Author: Dan Kennedy

Setting the record straight

My friend Adam Reilly of the Boston Phoenix is having a reading-comprehension problem today.

I have never remotely suggested, as Adam seems to think, that it doesn’t matter how much content the Boston Globe takes from GateHouse’s Newton Tab on its hyperlocal page for Newton. Nor have I said that it’s all right if the majority of Boston.com Newton‘s links come from the Tab.

What I have said is that GateHouse has little to complain about as long as the Globe is taking so little that you have to click through to the Tab’s Wicked Local Newton page in order to get the gist of the story. Which is what the Globe has been doing.

I also agree with Adam that the Globe is going to look silly if its Newton page doesn’t feature a good mix of Globe content, local bloggers and, yes, some links to the Tab.

Although I’m not privy to the details, I do know that Globe and GateHouse executives have been wrangling behind the scenes. For about a week, there was no Tab content at all at Boston.com Newton. Now there is again.

I don’t pretend to know exactly what the right mix is, but it does strike me that Globe editors tried to go about this the right way — and that the folks at GateHouse have, nevertheless, been appropriately prickly about the Globe using their content to boost its own local coverage.

Uncomfortable, yes, but ineffective, too

I read this story last night with the delight I normally reserve for accounts of casino-crazed former tribal leaders pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Only those with a childlike faith in the medical establishment could be surprised to learn that colonoscopies aren’t nearly as effective as had previously been thought. Of course, they are extremely effective in generating revenue, so no doubt we’ll continue to be told that everyone over 50 should get one every year blah blah blah.

Next time somebody feeds you that line, just ask a simple question: “Why?”

The Detroit newspaper experiment

As expected, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News announced today that they will offer home delivery only on Thursday, Friday and (Free Press only) Sunday. This deserves fuller treatment than I’m able to give it right now, though, in general, I agree with Steve Outing.

In fact, I’d go Steve one better. He says the papers ought to give their print editions away on non-home-delivery days. I suggest they come up with a five-day freebie in addition to their paid print editions, with the freebie consisting of an intelligently edited digest of what’s in the paid editions and online.

This is a move born of desperation, but it doesn’t have to be a negative. Handled right, this could be a way forward for many papers.

Keller whacks Patrick on transportation woes

Jon Keller posts a very tough critique of Gov. Deval Patrick following the resignation — or, should I say, the “resignation” — of Patrick’s transportation secretary, Bernard Cohen.

I don’t know nearly enough about the inner workings of the governor’s office to be able to offer an intelligent analysis. But Keller’s basic theme is that this represents a triumph of the old-line hacks over competent outsiders such as Cohen. Keller writes:

Cohen was a pure policy wonk who worked quietly and diligently to restore order to the state’s chaotic transportation planning and build working relationships with key political players. But he was not much of a headline-grabber or Patrick kiss-up. And he had a tendency to tell the truth about things, like the state’s utter inability to afford the commuter-rail extension to New Bedford that Patrick keeps insisting is still in the cards. So for his trouble, Cohen is now out, to be replaced by [James] Aloisi or someone like him, some wired-in smooth-talker who will convince the governor that he can sell the legislature on the huge toll and tax hikes Patrick apparently believes are necessary.

The Outraged Liberal takes a different view of the “ineffective” Cohen and writes: “While critics snipe that apparent successor James Aloisi was part of the team that created the mess, at least he knows where the bodies are buried.”

But Jay Fitzgerald says of Aloisi that “bringing back a key figure from the Big Dig Culture is an anti-reform disaster.”

And I agree with Jay that House Speaker Sal DiMasi is once again leading the good-government charge, writing an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe in which he calls for change before raising tolls or the gas tax. I’ll even forgive DiMasi for his hoary cliché of a lede.

Photo of Patrick (cc) by Allie Taylor and republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

The Journal’s flawed net-neutrality story

The Wall Street Journal today reports a potentially disastrous development, claiming that President-elect Barack Obama is softening in his support for network neutrality, which guarantees common-carrier status for all Internet traffic.

But it’s the story itself that may prove to be a disaster. The Talking Points gang is all over it and has found that (1) Obama has not changed his commitment to net neutrality; (2) Google denies [link now fixed; no, really] the Journal’s claim that it has shifted its support; and (3) academic Lawrence Lessig says what he told the Journal does not represent a change, either.

That’s three for three. How did this crap make it into the Journal? You’d think Rupert Murdoch owned it or something.

Corruption charges cloud Middleborough casino

Glenn Marshall, the former chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council, faces federal corruption charges in connection with his efforts to win governmental recognition for the tribe. Marshall was the driving force behind plans to build a $1 billion casino in Middleborough.

According Jay Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald, the charges include making illegal campaign contributions to members of Congress, guided by imprisoned former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose name has come up before in connection with the tribe.

Marshall stepped down in August 2007 after it was learned that he was a convicted rapist who’d lied about his military service. No word on whether his new legal woes are tied to Shawn Hendricks, his handpicked successor.

All this at a moment when the casino industry is falling apart — making it unlikely, Matt Viser reports in the Boston Globe, that Gov. Deval Patrick will revive his three-casino proposal any time soon.

Given the charges against Marshall, it looks like everything is up in the air — not just the proposed Middleborough casino, but whether the Mashpee are even a legal tribe with the right to build such a monstrosity.

It truly is a great day for Middleborough.

Update: Gladys Kravitz says all that needs to be said.