It’s time once again to review the Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight, especially the rumpus over the Boston Globe’s Spotlight report, Driven to the Edge.
Start as usual with the underdog Boston Herald, which has been hounding its crosstown rival all week over the Globe’s three-part taxidermy of the Boston cab industry.
The Herald’s Press Party segment is here.
Highlights:
The set-up piece accused the Globe of deception and essentially declared reporters should never go undercover, a position host Joe Battenfeld persistently pursued.
And a position Suffolk University’s Bob Rosenthal seconded, asserting that the Globe did a good job but committed an ethical violation because the paper could have gotten the story otherwise – which is nonsense.
Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson and State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, to their credit, countered that the Globe could not have gotten the story without going undercover.
Over at the Big Dog, WGBH’s Beat the Press (hosted by Emily Rooney), the conversation went this way:
Host Emily Rooney said sometimes the end justifies the means.
The panelists generally praised the Globe story, asserted that you need to cross your T’s and dot your I’s in these situations, and said the Herald was just being the Herald.
Who’s Top Dog?
You tell us.
Campaign Outsider 
I do wish Battenfeld would stop yelling. (His PP intro sounds like a total BtP ripoff, btw.) I liked the discussion, though. I think a comparison between this story and how the Herald treated the O’Keefe undercover stings (ACORN, NH voting) would demonstrate that the Herald loves undercover journalism, except when the Globe does it.
One area where PP is completely dominating BtP is their comment section! How does the Herald drive so much traffic there? Is it just because PP is web-only, and the BtP audience is mostly on non-interactive TV? I enjoy good discussion by commenters as much as the shows and articles themselves. Why is the BtP comment section such a snooze?
Maybe because the BtP viewers are all taking a nap?