By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions
Rob points out that Dave Guarino and I both missed this, at the end of Brian McGrory’s column on Sunday: “Brian McGrory’s column will appear on Wednesday and Sunday.”
In my very slight defense, I will note that I went here before I posted this morning and saw this: “Brian McGrory’s column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays in the City & Region section.”
Former Boston Herald political reporter and Tom Reilly operative Dave Guarino has been engaging in some interesting speculation on his blog about the future of the Globe’s metro columnists now that Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara has taken early retirement.
Guarino, an unabashed fan of Brian McGrory, thinks McGrory’s rare Sunday column was a sign that he’ll be getting McNamara’s marquee Sunday slot. As for McNamara’s replacement, Guarino says it has to be a woman, and mentions metro editor Carolyn Ryan and staff reporters Yvonne Abraham and Beth Healy as leading possibilities.
Those sound about right to me. Let me toss Living/Arts writer Joanna Weiss into the mix as well. And would it be possible to pry Joan Vennochi out of her op-ed slot? She’s influential already, but she’d have more visibility if her mugshot were on page B1 twice a week.
I’m playing catch-up — if you’re looking for any intelligent comment from me, it will have to wait. But I can’t let the day end without noting that Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara is taking the buyout and leaving the paper.
McNamara, who won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, brings an unusually keen social conscience to her post, and her voice will be deeply missed. She was also a fine news reporter for many years prior to being named a columnist.
And here is Globe editor Marty Baron’s memo on his accepting buyout applications from 24 staff members.
Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey e-mails Media Nation:
dan, i have always loved you stuff. but how can a media critic of your standing not call me first! for the record: i am staying. please correct.
best, bailey
Media Nation responds: Steve, thanks for the kind words. And I’m glad you’re staying.
I’ll save my shtick on what bloggers do and don’t do for another time. But I will say that pointing to interesting stuff on the Web is the essence of blogging.
Sometimes you point to something that turns out to be wrong. So consider this a correction.
The city’s best columnist, Steve Bailey (left), and legendary investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian are among those who’ve told Boston Globe editor Marty Baron that, all things considered, they’d rather be somewhere else. (Update: Bailey tells Adam Reilly that he’s staying put.)
Michael Calderone reports in the New York Observer that some 30 Globe staff members have said they want to take advantage of early-retirement incentives the paper is offering in a bid to shrink its news and editorial-page ranks by 19 (via Romenesko). The Bailey-Kurkjian development comports with information Media Nation picked up independently.
The loss of Kurkjian would be significant, though he is near retirement age. Bailey is another matter altogether. No Boston columnist, and few journalists of any kind, breaks as much news as Bailey. It’s unimaginable that he’d leave, but, then, a lot of unimaginable things are taking place at the Globe and other struggling newspapers these days.
Even though — or maybe because — he has the best forum in town, Bailey is occasionally rumored to be moving on. Three years ago he turned down an offer from Pat Purcell to work for the Boston Herald. So we’ll have to see how this plays out.
Media Nation joins Jon Keller and Adam Reilly in congratulating the Boston Globe for its two (according to Editor & Publisher) Pulitzer Prize nominations. The Globe has reportedly been nominated in Local Reporting for its “Debtor’s Hell” series, on unscrupulous bill collectors, and in National Reporting, for its stories on President Bush’s promiscuous use of presidential signing statements to negate the will of Congress.
Each is an example of public-service journalism at its best, and it’s a demonstration that — for all the angst that has enveloped the newspaper business over rapacious ownership and declining circulation and advertising revenues — large metropolitan dailies like the Globe, as well as national papers like the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, remain the places where most important journalism gets done.
The “Debtor’s Hell” series was headed up by Walter Robinson, who is now a colleague at Northeastern. The signing-statement story was reported by Charlie Savage.
“Debtor’s Hell” is also a fine example of how the smart use of technology can enhance a story that, no matter how good, would have ended up as day-old fish wrap just a few years ago. The electronic version goes way beyond “shovelware” — that is, print content thrown online with little regard for the Web’s strengths and weaknesses.
The main page offers podcasts, offsite resources and the all-important tip line for follow-ups. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a message board, audio Q&As, interactive graphics like this, the transcript of an online chat with Robinson and source documents, such as this, filed by Peter Damon, in which he informed bill collectors that he was in the hospital being treated for the loss of both arms in Iraq.
My guess is that the Pulitzer judges will only be looking at the clips. Someday, though, when the winning team is honored, it ought to include the Web producers alongside the reporters, photographers and editors.
The Pulitzer winners will be announced on April 16.
Globe football writer Ron Borges has been suspended for two months without pay for lifting material without attribution. This, from the Globe’s story, gets to the heart of the matter:
Borges’s column, like other sports ‘notes’ columns in the Globe, contain[s] a line at the bottom, reading, ‘material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.’ But [sports editor Joe] Sullivan said reporters are expected to use the shared notes for background material and not to lift the language directly from one another.
As a condition of his suspension, Borges has to refrain from broadcast appearances, the paper’s editor, Marty Baron, is quoted as saying. Baron also labels Borges’ transgression as “plagiarism.”
The Herald’s Messenger Blog goes with a fuller statement from Baron that also invokes the “P”-word.
I guess the biggest question is whether Borges will accept his punishment or quit the Globe. Borges, like many prominent sportswriters, has several broadcast and writing gigs. But his spot at the Globe is his meal ticket; without that, he wouldn’t be nearly as much in demand. My guess is that he’ll do his time and stick around.
The next step the Globe should take is to reword and clarify that disclaimer. It’s a landmine. I’d be willing to bet that Borges still doesn’t think he did anything wrong. (Don’t misunderstand me: I think he definitely crossed the line.) Here’s a suggestion: Write the “notes” columns like blogs, quoting from other papers directly when appropriate, and linking in the online versions. No disclaimer necessary.
After the Boston Globe emerged in the late 1990s from its travails over ethically challenged columnists Mike Barnicle and Patricia Smith, the editors began taking a number of steps to restore the paper’s credibility. One was the disclaimer placed at the bottom of the Sunday sports “notes” columns: “[M]aterial from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.”
Now it looks like that disclaimer is going to be put to the test. A Web site called Cold, Hard Football Facts charges that Globe football writer Ron Borges “apparently stole great stretches of his column from a previously published report” in the Tacoma News Tribune. Well, it depends on the meaning of “stole,” doesn’t it? The site acknowledges the disclaimer, but then adds that “even a 90-pound weakling of a newspaper copy boy has enough sense to change some of the words.”
The Phoenix’s Adam Reilly has all the details and promises to post responses from Borges and Globe editor Marty Baron as soon as he gets them.
I’ve been holding my fire on Gov. Deval Patrick’s personal spending spree (with our money) because I’m not sure exactly what to think. I thought the story about his helicopter rides to official events was genuinely stupid, but my ears perked up over his state-funded Cadillac. Since then, we’ve learned that he spent a fortune redecorating his office, and — most egregious, IMHO — has approved a $72,000-a-year chief of staff for his wife, a downtown lawyer.
And it’s not as though all this is obscuring the great news Patrick is making on other fronts. Indeed, as this was unfolding last week, he was quietly floating two ideas to raise taxes. This from a guy who said during his gubernatorial campaign that he had “no plans” for a tax increase. Well, not then, anyway.
I’m still not sure how big a deal any of this is. Faux-populist stories like these are a dime a dozen, and if Patrick’s tastes are more expensive than those of his predecessors, such is life. But his news conference yesterday is another matter. Patrick demonstrated such a just-doesn’t-get-it streak — and not for the first time — that it makes you wonder whether he has the basic political instincts needed to be an effective governor.
Essentially, Patrick apologized, even going so far to say he’d “screwed up”; announced that he would return some of the money; and then undid all the good he might have done by blaming it on the media. (Globe coverage here; Herald coverage here.) By all means, take a look at Jon Keller’s report on WBZ-TV (Channel 4). I also recommend Adrian Walker’s column in today’s Globe, which includes this:
I’m on record as not giving a hoot what the governor gets driven around in. I still think people place too much emphasis on symbols over substance. At the end of the day, a leased Cadillac is a ridiculous barometer to measure Patrick by.
What is troubling, though, is Patrick’s inability to think any problem of his has anything to do with him. If everyone could just be as high-minded, as substantive as he is, everything would be fine.
Over at Patrick headquarters, a.k.a. Blue Mass Group, Charley Blandy wags his finger at the media:
All of the local media geniuses who have smelled blood on the caddy stuff need to get a clue, and start focusing on things that matter. This is page B3 stuff at best. Media outlets aren’t struggling just because of their business model; they’re struggling because they’ve abdicated their vitality and relevance, and become just as focused on gossipy crap like the DeVille, or whether Scott Brown has a potty-mouth, or whatever. [Blandy’s emphasis.]
Blandy also denounces “the obvious racial subtext to all of this: Deval as Pimp.” Well, you know what? I’m not going to say there’s no racial subtext. There always is when you’re talking about an African-American in a position of power. But let’s not get carried away here.
Patrick needs to understand that, yes, he ran a mistake-free campaign for governor, but he also had plenty of luck, beating two extremely weak candidates in the Democratic primary and running virtually unopposed in the general election. For all his smarts and knowledge, he’s still got a lot to learn about politics.
Are the media pushing all this too hard? Probably. Yesterday, though, Patrick had a chance to put this string of stories behind him. He only partly succeeded — at best.
Elsewhere: The Massachusetts Liberal is more impressed with Patrick’s apology than I am. Jay Fitzgerald: “Individually, the various stories don’t push my outrage buttons. Collectively, well, they add up.” And the Herald’s Inside Track has a hilarious account of a dust-up between two reporters for WHDH-TV (Channel 7), Andy Hiller and Sean Hennessey, as they were jockeying for position at Patrick’s news conference.
More: Emily Rooney comes to Patrick’s defense.
The Phoenix’s Adam Reilly says Boston.com readers are alternating between expressing their outrage over the Globe’s playing the Tom Brady love-child story above the fold and e-mailing it to all their friends.