From our Walt Whitman desk
By now it’s clear to the hardreading staff – as it should be to everyone – that the trial of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger is about one thing and one thing only:
Howie Carr.
The Boston Herald columnist previously milked his presence on Bulger’s witness list for some bulk-mail pieces. Now it’s John Martorano’s turn to get a Carr ride.
From today’s piece . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
The Names column in the Boston Sunday Globe featured this item:
That’s nothing. Here’s what the New York Post reported about the same event, as the hardworking staff has previously noted:
Kraft: Putin stole Bowl ring
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft revealed the real story behind a 2005 meeting with Vladimir Putin, during which the Russian president pocketed his Super Bowl ring, worth more than $25,000. Kraft, at the time, claimed the diamond-encrusted bauble was a gift, but he now admits Putin stole it, and the White House intervened when he demanded it back.
Kraft explained the incident happened while Sandy Weill and other business execs were in St. Petersburg. “I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,’ ” Kraft told the crowd at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.“I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”
Subsequently, a Bush administration official told Kraft that, as the Post relates it, “‘It would really be in the best interest of US-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present.’ (In fact the Soviet Union had collapsed 14 years earlier.)”
But not a word of it appeared in the Sunday Globe, apparently because it’s old news. From today’s Names column:
Vladimir Putin is denying Robert Kraft’s oft-told claim that the Russian president pocketed a prized Super Bowl ring during the Patriots owner’s visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2005. Kraft has long alleged that Putin kept the diamond-studded Super Bowl ring but didn’t make a fuss at the request of then-President George W. Bush who wanted to avoid trouble with Russia. Kraft repeated the story at an awards event in New York the other night.
The hardworking staff then checked out the Globe archive and sure enough, we found this from 2005:
Even so, sometimes old news in the Post is more interesting than new news in the Globe.
Talk about Patriotic! The New York Post reports that Pats owner Robert Kraft wasn’t exactly telling the truth in 2005 when he said he’d given his Super Bowl ring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin just took it, which is fitting behavior for the head of a kleptocracy.
From yesterday’s New York Post (via Mediaite):
Kraft explained the incident happened while Sandy Weill and other business execs were in St. Petersburg. “I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,’ ” Kraft told the crowd at Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.“I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”
According to the Post piece, someone from the George W. Bush administration called Kraft and said, ‘It would really be in the best interest of US-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present.” (As the Post points out, the Soviet Union had collapsed 14 years earlier.)
So Kraft acquiesced. Damn good thing he wasn’t traveling with Ricki Noel Lander at the time, eh?
THE BOSTON HERALD WANTS YOU to swell the ranks of its current 17 home subscribers. So it ran this ad in today’s edition:
Always Relevant? Seriously?
Here’s Page One of the sports section Herald home subscribers received this morning . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
Last night’s Stanley Cup Final game was another overtime corker, yeah?
And this time Somethin’ Bruin was on the winning side of poetic justice.
First, a minute and a half into overtime Jaromir Jagr rang one off the crossbar – only to see the puck fly into the netting.
Twelve minutes later Daniel Paille rang one off the post, only to see the puck fly into the net.
Assist to Tyler Seguin, who awoke Saturday morning to this Boston Herald back page:
Well, last night was Tyler’s time.
And two games in, this is already one helluva series.
This week’s Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight finds our local hall monitors addressing very different topics.
Boston Herald Press Party rundown.
WGBH’s Beat the Press had a different agenda: the Whitey Bulger trial coverage, a WCVB/Nstar partnership, modernizing PBS’s NewsHour, and Rants and Raves.
Two questions:
#1 Hey, Press Partyniks: No Whitey Bulger trial coverage? Seriously?
#2 Hey, Beat the Pressniks: No reliable video?
Seriously?
Your rants and raves go here.
It’s not often that the Boston Globe out-tabloids the Boston Herald, but today’s one of those times thanks to this Page One story:
The, er, money quote . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
The Washington Post has gone native (advertising).
From the Wall Street Journal:
Washington Post Opens Online Opinion Pages to Sponsored Content
The Washington Post said on Wednesday that it would let special-interest groups and others buy space on online opinion pages to respond to the paper’s editorials, in the latest example of a mainstream publisher offering so-called sponsored content.
The Post’s launch of “Sponsored Views” comes as marketers are increasingly turning to self-created articles and videos, rather than traditional advertising spots, in order to pitch their products and viewpoints.
Representative sample from the online tail end of a recent Post editorial headlined “Cyberattacks call for legislation and open debate.”
The website paidContent says the Post’s move is actually pretty smart . . .
Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.
The hardsaving staff recently noted the new Own your tomorrow print ad from Charles Schwab (rough translation: Don’t talk to Chuck. You’re on your own).
Now comes the TV spot, whose visuals – minus the Mt. Rushmore shots of the old man – could be for anything from life insurance to Adelphi University :
We especially like the whole “getting involved, staying engaged” motif.
Translation: You lost money? It’s your fault.
Very smart.
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