I’ve often characterized the Boston Herald as a lively index to the Boston Globe, but on Saturday the feisty local tabloid absolutely blowtorched (I think) what it likes to call “the boring broadsheet.”
Globe headline:
EMC cofounder Richard Egan dies
Lede:
Richard J. Egan, the billionaire cofounder of information storage giant EMC Corp. of Hopkinton who served 15 months as ambassador to Ireland, much of that time in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, died at his Boston home yesterday.
Mr. Egan was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in May, his family said in an e-mailed statement last night that announced his death.
Herald headline:
Cops: EMC Biz Big Kills Self
(The Herald softened that online to “EMC Corp. co-founder Richard Egan dead at 73”)
But the lede for both is the same, and it’s a corker:
Richard Egan, the billionaire co-founder of EMC Corp. and the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, died yesterday of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head, police and other sources confirmed.
As of 1 a.m. Sunday, the Globe hadn’t amplified and the Herald hadn’t clarified.
I don’t know which version is correct, but I do know this: Boston Globe, press release; Boston Herald, cops.
My money’s on the Herald.
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thanks for catching this… wbz throughout much of day made it sound as if egan had died from the illnesses. same source, or they got theres’ from the globe.
but i also got the sense that everyone was going easy on egan, for killing himself.
How do I read the other two responses here? It says “3 Responses” but I see only one (from mark baard)
The other two are pingbacks/trackbacks, Ron. But your comment now makes two (or four) and my reply makes . . . well, whatever.
It’s so interesting to see just how the arrangement & choice of words completely convey two entirely different messages. Makes you realize how you can’t always believe what you have read literally in any published content. With more people using blogs and reading blogs as an emerging information portal, I think it’s now easier to find transparent information as opposed to what newspapers choose to publish.