Media Nation

A bit of post-debate clean-up before moving on:

— Media Nation commenters obviously don’t like the idea of excluding anyone from future gubernatorial debates. Fair enough. But I still think that at least one or two debates ought to focus on candidates who actually have some remote chance of winning. If it were up to me, I’d have a few debates featuring just Deval Patrick and Kerry Healey, and a few with Christy Mihos and Grace Ross as well. (A Mihos-Ross match-up? Sure, why not? Anyone going to televise it? Uh, I don’t think so.)

But one point that comes up over and over really needs to be addressed, and that’s the notion that anyone who qualifies for the ballot deserves to be invited. Ballot qualifications are determined by the government; debates are sponsored by non-governmental bodies. It used to be the League of Women Voters. These days, more often than not, it’s a media organization.

For debate organizers, the fact that a candidate is on the ballot is merely one consideration to take into account. It’s amazing to me that people who are otherwise quite independent think the media ought to take dictation from the government regarding debate invitations.

— This has been much-blogged-on already, but in case you missed it elsewhere, you’ve got to see Emily Rooney’s post on the “amateurish” performance of WFXT-TV (Channel 25), which sponsored the debate along with the Boston Herald.

— Ditto for sharp-eared Phoenix writer Adam Reilly, who was listening when Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, on WTKK Radio (96.9 FM), revealed that “ordinary voter” Shonda Schilling not only isn’t ordinary — she also isn’t a voter.

Here’s a thought. Later this week, a respected, nonpartisan organization ought to poll the Massachusetts governor’s race. And anyone who’s not hovering at 10 percent or more ought to be excluded — maybe not from all subsequent debates, but certainly from a few.

In many respects, Christy Mihos and Grace Ross dominated yesterday’s gubernatorial debate. Good for them. Let’s see if they changed enough minds to get within striking distance. If so, they should be heard from again.

But if not, it’s time for at least a couple of forums at which Deval Patrick and Kerry Healey can go at it one on one. In particular, Mihos’ relentless attacks on Healey put the lieutenant governor on the defensive the entire night and allowed her principal opponent, Patrick, to stand above the fray.

That was unfair to the voters, who deserve to see how both major-party candidates perform under pressure.

A Boston Globe editorial today makes the same point.

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts recently wrote a terrific piece on the downside of blogworld. His subject: the conspiracy theories that started making the rounds once again following the anniversary of 9/11. Read the whole thing, but here’s a key excerpt:

You might call it cynicism, but cynicism is quaint and 20th century compared to this new tendency to reflexively reject any facts provided by government or the dreaded mainstream media. Conspiracy theorizing is not new — ask Elvis next time you see him — but what is new is that the Internet has broken the government/media monopoly on the dissemination and definition of news.

While that’s good in many ways, one troubling byproduct is this new notion that you cannot truly understand the great and terrible events of our time without access to some ”factier” facts promulgated by some website most of us never heard of with an ideological slant that conveniently mirrors one’s own.

Thanks to Media Nation reader M.S.

Well, this was inevitable. The Boston Globe reports that WTKK Radio (96.9 FM) has consigned yipping ninny Michael Graham to nights so that it can bring back Jay Severin, the loathsome but listenable host whom Graham replaced.

Here is ‘TKK’s announcement.

This is certainly bad news for Howie Carr, who’ll once again be competing head to head with Severin on WRKO (AM 680). Severin was regularly beating Carr before departing for a syndication deal. I haven’t studied the ratings lately, but Graham couldn’t possibly have been giving him as much trouble as Severin did.

Update: Brian Maloney’s take on Severin is absolutely brutal, but lots of fun.

A 6 p.m. gubernatorial debate? You’ve got to be kidding. I captured the live stream on the WTKK Web site, transferred it to my iPod, and listened to the first half while doing other things. I’ll finish it on the drive to work tomorrow.

My first impression of the first half: Deval Patrick and Kerry Healey were both so slick and cautious that neither did any damage or helped themselves much. But Patrick won because Christy Mihos was kicking the bejesus out of Healey while leaving Patrick pretty much alone. And to the extent that Grace Ross took sides, she was pretty hard on Healey, too.

Thanks to Media Nation reader K.W.

The Web site for the Scott Allen Miller’s show on WRKO Radio (AM 680) has been edited. Instead of saying, “Citgo is basically owned by the government of Venezuela, and the city pays to light up the sign every night,” it now just says, “Citgo is basically owned by the government of Venezuela.”

I didn’t have a chance to hear Miller this morning, so I don’t know whether he acknowledged his error.

As every pundit knows, the best predictions are the ones that can’t be proven wrong. Thus, the very best prediction of who will win tonight’s gubernatorial debate comes from Republican strategist Holly Robichaud, in Kimberly Atkins’ “Monday morning briefing” column in the Boston Herald:

Initially Patrick will be perceived as the winner of the debate for his likeable performance, but Healey’s attacks will do a slow-burn with the voters that will turn Patrick from likeable to unacceptable.

Try disproving that a month from now.

By the way, for those of you who have yet to discover Atkins’ political blog, click here.

When Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy insinuates, on the basis of no evidence, that Manny Ramírez is lying about being hurt, then Shaughnessy deserves what he gets.

But when the Globe’s Gordon Edes writes a balanced, tough piece on Ramírez’s refusal to play hurt even as his teammates are going out there with more serious injuries, that’s another matter altogether.

Maybe it really is time for Manny to go.

In two comments to Media Nation yesterday (here’s the link to the comment thread), WRKO Radio (AM 680) talk-show host Scott Allen Miller continued to insist that taxpayers are being forced to pick up the cost of lighting the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square. Miller wrote:

I didn’t say the Boston taxpayer refurbished the sign, Dan, but according to media reports last year when the sign was refurbished, the Boston taxpayer does pay to light it. Some “gift”! Would we be as supportive of an Exxon sign?

I’ve asked Miller to provide documentation, but haven’t seen any yet. I do know that of the three reports I was able to find from that event, in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and the Associated Press, none made any such assertion. (No links for the Herald and the AP because I found them in closed databases. But you can look up the Herald story online with a library card, and the AP story pretty much rehashed what was in the papers.)

At this point, I have to assume that Miller hasn’t come up with the relevant “media reports” he cited because there aren’t any. Herald reporter Laura Crimaldi posted a comment to Media Nation yesterday in which she said: “For what it’s worth, Citgo spokesman Fernando Garay told me this morning that Citgo Oil pays the electricity bill for the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square.” In today’s Herald, Crimaldi includes Garay’s comment and confirms it with Mayor Tom Menino as well.

Despite all this, if you go to the Web site for Miller’s show this morning, it still says, “Citgo is basically owned by the government of Venezuela, and the city pays to light up the sign every night.” (My emphasis.) Yet in a post on his own blog, Miller goes on at some length about his crusade to tear down the Citgo sign without ever once making the same claim. Interesting.

As for Miller’s claim that I got it wrong when I wrote that he had said taxpayers had footed the bill for refurbishing the Citgo sign, I’ll concede that I may have gotten confused. I was driving, not taking notes or rolling tape. That’s not an excuse, just reality — I was convinced I had it right. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone with it.

Miller, on the other hand, has yet to admit he got it wrong when he said, over and over, that taxpayers have been saddled with the cost of Citgo’s electric bill every time the sign is turned on. I’m told he was going off on me yesterday morning as well. I hope he at least mentioned the URL of Media Nation.

One final thought. Miller is well within his rights to demand that the city turn off the sign in protest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavéz’s denunciation of President Bush. But Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott, as an elected official, has different responsibilities.

Both Miller and McDermott are advocating government censorship, in direct violation of the First Amendment. Miller, as a talk-show host, is exercising his right of free speech. McDermott, as a representative of the government, is not — he wants to use his power to silence someone whose speech he disagrees with.

And let’s not even get into the absurdity of trying to punish Chavéz by going after Citgo simply because the corporation is owned by the Venezuelan state oil company.

Anyway — enough.