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Friday, April 10, 2009

Hep me!!!

This terrific piece from the Herald's Howie Carr...

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1164722

Kind of puts it into perspective, eh?

14 comments:

  1. The esteemed Scot Lehigh notes that 'Many say they'd pay for the Globe online.' Well, I guess the Globe is saved!

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  2. While there is a need for more than one news outlet in a city, the Globe has been a liar's paper since the 1960s. It doesn't need to be saved.

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  3. Let's face it, everyone. Howie isn't markedly better than CHB. How many times do you think he's used "solon" and "hackerama" over the years? He's essentially been churning out the same column for the last decade. And any guy who claims to be the "voice of the people" yet lives in Wellesley and went to Deerfield Academy is, by definition, full of shit.

    Your pal,

    Timmy

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  4. Now, now Timmy. Howie isn't as lazy as you seem to think.

    Sometimes he actually types up new one-liners from his radio audience while on the air composing the next day's cohlumn while on the air.

    At least he's open about shilling for his book, unlike some members of the holier-than-thou brigade.

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  5. Perspective indeed. But then what would you expect from someone who considers anecdotes to be reporting.

    Mistakes happen everywhere. But them must be kept in, well I guess you'd have to call it perspective, eh?

    1972, Spotlight Team report results in indictment of three former Somerville mayors on corruption charges

    1990, Based on reporting with multiple sources, Globe reports how siblings of Chuck Stuart knew he murdered his wife but kept quiet about it for months until one brother started talking to the cops, leading to Stuart suicide.

    October 1997, Globe reports that former Mayor Raymond Flynn's tenure as ambassador to the
    Vatican is a boozy adventure and that the Department of State is concerned about his performance.


    October, 1999 Globe reports that head of Brown University psych department, known for praising the use of narcotics to treat depression, failed to disclose a half million dollars in consulting fees from the drug companies whose wares he endorsed. Follows January report into Brown being forced to refund $300,000 to Mass. taxpayers after billing for research not performed.

    2002 Globe blows cover off priest abuse scandal,detailing the extent of abuse and the depth of the cover-up.

    2003 In a report that includes examination of 12,000 change orders, Globe finds waste, shoddy construction and outright fraud in Big Dig, including $1 billion in cost overruns from mistakes alone.

    2006 Series of reports detail how court system favors creditors over debtors in small claims and supplemental process proceedings.

    2007 Globe reports that President Bush is bypassing provisions of bills he signs into law, claiming a right to sign bills and ignore their provisions if it conflicts with his view of hte Constitjution.

    July, 2008. Globe reports on suspicious third-mortgage given to House Speaker, leading ultimately to federal probe and speaker's resignation.

    2008 Reports detail inordinate influence that one company, Partners, enjoys in the healthcare industry in eastern Massachusetts.

    February, 2009, Globe reports ex-state senator fattens pension through a provision of state law whisked through the legislature that gave him pension credit for time he served as a library trustee -- which his attendance record wsa awful

    Today, Globe reports of hockey at Fenway Park and massive service cuts on the T, while the closes to an exclusive the Herald can muster is to confirm good ole Objective Bruce's analysis of the so-called lifetime guarantees for Globies.

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  6. Howie forgot this one:

    Feb. 2008.... HERALD hack John Tomase reports Patriots filmed Rams Super Bowl walkthrough....OPPS!

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  7. And any guy who claims to be the "voice of the people" yet lives in Wellesley and went to Deerfield Academy is, by definition, full of shit.

    Howie went to Deerfield because his father was the head of maintenance or some similar position and not because he came from money.

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  8. OB,

    The NY Times hasn't switched off the Lexis/Nexis to save a few bucks yet? I wouldn't be goofing off at work, wasting resources with the bigwigs looking to cut more fat.

    Or do you have one of those lifetime jobs the Taylors handed out?

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  9. OB...

    You really are such a tool.

    Anecdotes aren't that bad a thing, Bubba. At least the Globe's Katherin Powers didn't think so in her review of my book last weekend.

    She calls It Was Never About the Babe, "an astute, anecdote-rich journey through the shadow of darkness."

    And, by the way, several errors I identified have been corrected for the next printing (its fourth). That's more than Shank ever did...

    Are you still on Dan's payroll?

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  10. Anecdotes are very nice indeed. But never, ever confuse them with either reporting or writing true history.

    Key phrase in the Globe free-lancer's two paragraphs about the blogger's book:

    "Gutlon rehashes"

    To call it a book review, by the way, is a bit of a stretch. There is some critical thinking and analysis in what we have come to view as a book review, Powers provides little more than a rundown of seven different books released in time for Opening Day. There is no theme running through her piece, no connection between the books, no critical analysis of the claims made, and six of the seven blurbs are given unabashedly positive treatment. It is more of a shopper's guide than a review. I must say, also, than I have never seen reviews or even shoppers guides referred to as an "endorsement." You might want to double check your nomenclature.

    We have previously dispatched the libels of being on the Globe payroll and of being either Shaughnessy himself or his manservant. However for the newly initiated (and the booksellerz) among you:

    The last nickel I made from the Boston Globe was delivering it from my J.C. Higgins bicycle.

    I've never met Shaughnessy.

    And, in an effort to dispense with this DBvader's repetitive howling at the moon, all you need is a BPL card, available to just about anyone living in Massachusetts, to get on-line access to Globe, Herald and other newspaper archives. A Globe subscription will get you its archives. Sorry to once again deflate your theory, but there it is.

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  11. Obtuse Bruce...

    Oh, well...guess I'll just off myself -- NOT!!!

    Here's what Powers added in an e-mail to me:

    "I was really surprised by how good and fresh your book was. I was expecting something pro forma, a grinding through of well ground material. I wished I had more space to go into the details."

    Face it, it WAS an endorsement.

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  12. Sorry, Jerry, that's downright goofy.

    Newspapers don't "endorse" books. They may review them favorably, but they don't "endorse" them.

    Maybe copy editors do have some use after all.

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  13. Bruce, the Globe was reactive, never proactive, in those "exposes" you cite.

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  14. And Bruce, newspapers do in fact endorse books, especially those by their writers.

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