Media Nation

The Salem News updates the dispute between Danvers Fire Chief James Tutko and the federal Chemical Safety Board, but doesn’t really add anything new. It looks as though Tutko thinks his department will be out of the explosion area in a few days, after which the feds can come in. But it remains unexplained why Tutko is taking this stance. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t people allowed to view Ground Zero almost immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11?

I’m eager to learn what the Salem News reports later today, but at the moment, I’m concerned about what I’m seeing. More than four days after the Danvers explosion, the neighborhood is still sealed off with police barricades. No one can get in or out without identification showing that they belong in the neighborhood.

Even more inexplicable is that Fire Chief James Tutko is refusing to allow federal inspectors to do their jobs. I’m trying to approach this with an open mind, but right now it’s hard to disagree with Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker, who writes:

If James Tutko, the Danvers fire chief, really wants to do something to aid the investigation into the stunning explosion last week, there is one step he could easily take: Get out of the way.

It is absurd that the federal Chemical Safety Board can’t get onto the site to investigate the cause of the blaze, because the fire official has decided they aren’t needed.

The Globe reports on this strange development here and here. The Herald has another angle on the dispute here. The Chemical Safety Board Web site, in announcing its Danvers investigation, has this to say by way of background:

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. The agency’s board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in safety management systems, regulations, and industry standards.

That sounds like exactly what we need. Those of us who live in Danvers deserve an explanation as to why the CSB isn’t being allowed in.

This is pathetic: Jessica Heslam flipped on WRKO Radio (AM 680) earlier today and thought it was strange that no one was talking about the explosion — until she realized the station was rerunning a show from Tuesday.

Right now Todd Feinburg is talking about what happens “if” the Boston College football team wins “tonight,” which I guess means that ‘RKO is back to live programming. Well, let’s give them all a pat on the back.

WTKK (96.9 FM), the city’s other all-talk station, already runs a lot of rebroadcasts during the weekend. It would be a shame to see WRKO follow suit.

You can’t tell from the Web site, but the Salem News today has the best coverage I’ve seen of the Danvers explosion. If you’re anywhere near the North Shore, you should try to pick up a copy. A terrific front page, comprehensive stories covering every angle and lots of photos make this the best overall package out there.

Of course, you might say, the local paper should have the best coverage. True, but we all know how rarely that happens. Too many community papers lack the staff and the smarts to keep up with the big out-of-town news organizations. So it was nice to see the News turn in such a strong performance.

Disclosure: Mrs. Media Nation is a former photographer for the News, and we still know a lot of people who work there.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days. Last week the Patriot Ledger published a story about a “newly discovered bootleg recording” of two 1975 performances by Bob Dylan and Rolling Thunder Revue, in Plymouth of all places.

“The shows still stand as the most significant musical event in the town’s history,” writes the Ledger’s Lane Lambert.

I nearly went to one of those shows. I grew up in nearby Middleborough, and a few of my older friends saw Dylan. I don’t recall thinking it was any big deal at the time, but it certainly was.

You can download the album yourself by clicking here.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel Philbrick shares Plymouth memories of Dylan in today’s New York Times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Both the Globe and the Herald have done a great job today covering the aftermath of the Danvers explosion. The Globe is ahead in terms of quantity, but the quality of both is outstanding. The Herald has the first interview with the plant owner, a significant scoop. Each paper’s Web site features staff coverage, slide shows and contributions from readers.

One interesting aspect to this is that, on the Internet, everyone can compete. So even though I’m accustomed to thinking of the Herald-versus-Globe dynamic, in fact, Channels 4, 5, 7 and 25, NECN and WBZ Radio all have extensive online coverage, too. Locally, the daily Salem News has posted a story, while the weekly Danvers Herald features coverage from the Boston Herald.

On the Web, a newspaper can be a TV station and a TV station can be a newspaper. Which means that the competitive environment on a breaking story like this is fiercer than ever.

I’m facing a deadline and 2,000 words to write. But before I sign off for the day, I just wanted to mention a few things about the explosion in Danvers this morning, which took place barely two miles from Media Nation Central.

First, the blast was unlike anything I’d heard before — loud and deep, as though a bomb had gone off, which I guess is not far from what actually happened. Mrs. Media Nation assumed it was the “snow thunder” that had been predicted, but it sure didn’t sound like thunder to me. Still, we couldn’t imagine that part of a neighborhood had just been wiped out.

Second, it is incredibly good news that no one was killed or seriously hurt. Now there’s something to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.

Third, though television and radio have obviously been all over it, I’m interested to see how the Globe and the Herald perform online today. This is the worst possible scenario for print — it’s the biggest story of the day, and the papers don’t publish until tomorrow. But they’re already posting coverage on their Web sites. Take a look, and you’ll see that they’re both off and running. The Globe’s already got sidebars, a slide show and a discussion board.

Finally, WRKO Radio (AM 680) dodged a bullet this morning. Faced with the first big local story since firing its entire news staff, the station had Joe Sciacca, a top editor at the Herald, filling in for the vacationing Scott Allen Miller. Sciacca, in turn, hooked up with Herald reporter O’Ryan Johnson, who delivered live updates from the scene.

The Boston Globe’s redoubtable Steve Bailey today reports on both of the city’s struggling dailies.

On page one, Bailey reveals that the New York Times Co. has rejected the notion of selling the Globe to a group headed by retired GE chairman Jack Welch. Bailey writes that a source who’d seen the Times Co.’s letter, signed by president Janet Robinson, described it as “unequivocal” in expressing the company’s desire to keep the Globe. So explain this Bailey tidbit:

Welch could not be reached for comment. But executives close to the Welch group, which includes longtime Boston advertising executive Jack Connors and Boston concessionaire Joe O’Donnell, said the three had no plans to abandon their effort.

Did the Times Co. leave the door open a crack? Do Welch and company think the Sulzbergers are going to change their minds? Or are these simply three guys who are used to getting their own way?

Media Nation’s prediction: The Times Co. will sell the Globe in one to three years, when, presumably, the advertising market will have recovered enough so that the paper will bring a better price. And Welch won’t be the buyer.

Bailey also has news about the Boston Herald in his “Downtown” column. It seems that Herald publisher Pat Purcell is keeping the revenue from some new billboards on Herald property for himself, and some union folks are ticked off about it.

I can’t say I blame them. The Weekly Dig posted an item yesterday reporting something I had heard independently — that three more Herald veterans have been laid off. They are lifestyle columnist Beth Teitell and arts reporters Dana Bisbee and Terry Byrne.

The Dig, as is its wont, kicks Teitell when she’s down, which draws a much-deserved rebuke from Herald stalwart Tom Mashberg.

Every writer, before he dies, should have a chance to whack an editor or a publisher who’s tormented him the way Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara gets to do today with would-be O.J. Simpson enabler Judith Regan.

Regan, it turns out, rejected a book proposal McNamara brought to her some years ago because it had too much substance and not enough sex. The book, “Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist,” was eventually bought by another publishing house, where it suffered the fate of 99 percent of books.

McNamara gets her revenge today, from the headline, “A vulture gets plucked,” to the ending:

As Regan predicted, my book made a quick trip to the remainder table, but Regan developed an interest in psychiatry after all. “I listened carefully, and what went through my mind surprised me,” she said of her now-shelved interview with Simpson. “Mental illness. Thought-process disorder. No empathy. Malignant narcissism.” Kind of what went through my mind when I heard that Judith Regan was behind this debacle.

Wow. Vicious stuff. And I definitely mean that in a good way.

I finally got around to watching the DVD that comes with the “limited edition” version of Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times.” And the notorious “Soy Bomb” moment that occurred as Dylan performed “Love Sick” at the 1997 Grammy Awards, in February 1998, has somehow been edited out.

What happened? Is it simply a different camera angle? Were more-drastic measures taken? A concert clip isn’t journalism, but is this kind of rewrite ethical or not?

Here is the original, unedited clip, complete with Soy Bomb writhing away as Dylan tries to ignore him:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boGrq8VdDEE]
The editing makes for a smoother viewing experience, I suppose. But it’s not what happened.