By Dan Kennedy • Tracking the future of local news and other passions since 2005
I’ll be a guest on “Radio Boston,” on WBUR (90.9 FM), this Friday at 1 p.m. to talk about the future of the newspaper business. The program will be repeated on Saturday at 1 p.m., and will be available online as well.
Also this Friday, I’ll be on “Greater Boston with Emily Rooney” (WGBH-TV, Channel 2), at 7 p.m. for our weekly “Beat the Press” media roundup.
The Times is now reporting that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is expected to resign this morning.
I’ve been thinking about why, in the post-Bill Clinton era, Spitzer can’t just brazen out what is at its heart a sex scandal. I think there are three reasons. (There are always three, aren’t there?)
That said, we should remember that few people believed Clinton could survive revelations of his scandalous behavior with Monica Lewinsky. If Spitzer decides suddenly to dig in his heels and stay, who’s to say he can’t survive — provided his answer to the money question is the right one?
There are so many reasons that we’re going to miss Globe columnist Steve Bailey. Among those reasons is his staunch, principled, fact-based opposition to casino gambling. Bailey’s got a good one today, poking holes in the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce study — not that it already didn’t pretty much look like Swiss cheese.
Something I had missed, but that Bailey picks up on right away: the very title is “Casino Gaming in Massachusetts,” thus relying on the preferred PR term for gambling rather than the English language. His description of so-called revenues as gambling losses is dead-on. And he wonders how long it will be before Donald Trump starts seeking a tax cut.
Bailey’s column comes on the same day that the Globe’s Sean Murphy reports that slot-machine revenues are plunging in Connecticut and Rhode Island, showing that oversaturation is already taking a toll. People only have so much money they can lose, apparently. The Patrick administration says it sees no need to revise its numbers, which makes sense once you understand they’re based on nothing but wishful thinking in the first place. (Plus whatever Clyde Barrow jotted down while hanging out in parking lots.)
In today’s Herald, Scott Van Voorhis offers some horrifying tales of gambling addiction, but says advocates are neutral on Gov. Patrick’s three-casino plan because of the money he would include for treatment. The advocates seem not to understand that there will be a lot more gambling, and a lot more addiction, if people don’t have to drive all the way to Foxwoods.
Not to mention that treatment money can always be cut. Especially if it’s needed to give a tax break to Donald Trump.
In my latest for the Guardian, I expand on my post about former Obama adviser Samantha Power, and why she might think the Clintons’ behavior has been monstrous outside the context of the current campaign.
The New York Times reports that Eliot Spitzer won’t resign as governor of New York today. Why would he prolong the agony? Here’s a guess: When investigating corruption involving public officials, the feds sometimes consider it a victory if they can merely force an elected official out of office.
If I recall correctly, former Massachusetts House Speaker Charles Flaherty’s resignation from office was part of the agreement he worked out with federal prosecutors. Spitzer knows that once he’s stepped down, he’s lost all his leverage. Better to negotiate from a position of — well, you couldn’t exactly call it strength at this point. But at least he’s still got something to barter away.
This hurts. According to Silicon Valley Insider, New York Times Co. chief financial officer James Follo says the company would like to sell the Boston Globe — except that, at the moment, it isn’t worth enough to put it on the block. Michael Learmonth writes:
In a presentation to the Bear Strearns [sic] media conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Follo singled out the Boston Globe as an underperforming asset that could be sold off, but that recent newspaper valuations made that unlikely in the near-term. Similarly, [Times Co. CEO Janet] Robinson said The Times’ local papers could also be sold, but that similar newspaper groups have not sold at a high multiple, so the Times is more likely to hold on to them, for now.
It’s not encouraging to realize that Times Co. executives think of Boston’s paper of record as something they’re stuck with. But there you have it. One silver lining: Follo apparently thinks things will improve at some point. (Thanks to Media Nation reader B.D.)
Alan Dershowitz explains in today’s New York Times:
“Men go to prostitutes — big deal, that’s not a story in most parts of the world,” Mr. Dershowitz said.
But he also said he had been surprised when Mr. Spitzer prosecuted a prostitution ring in 2004.
“I always thought he was somebody who would come down on crimes with real victims,” Mr. Dershowitz said. “Prostitutes aren’t victims — they’re getting paid a thousand dollars an hour, and the johns aren’t victims. What upset me the most was that they wiretapped thousands of e-mails and phone calls. In an age when terrorism needs to be stopped, they’re devoting these kinds of resources to a prostitution ring?”
Here is the Times account of that 2004 bust — 18 people arrested thanks to Spitzer’s efforts, apparently for doing nothing worse than what Spitzer appears to have done. I couldn’t find any follow-up stories. Does anyone know if any of them went to prison?
This is why New York Post editors make the big bucks.
Update: Give that reader a prize. I missed this last night, but it came from Richard, who suggested “HO NO! SAY IT AIN’T SO!” (Thanks to Jeff Inglis.)
The ever-classy New York Post is letting its readers write headlines for the Eliot Spitzer story. A sampling:
Those last two aren’t bad. But I’ll bet the Post itself comes up with something better for tomorrow’s edition.
Oof. Let’s just say the Red Sox are unlikely to get off to a fast start this April. No need to panic, folks.