The Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight resumed last night, with the Boston Herald’s underdog Press Party webcast featuring this:
The Boston Herald’s “Press Party” gives credit to local media for outperforming the national print and TV networks in our half-hour show devoted to critiquing the virtual nonstop coverage of the Marathon terror bombings and the aftermath.
The Press Party panelists, including former GOP congressman Peter Blute and Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, acknowledged the media made numerous mistakes but agreed that local TV and print provided the most knowledgeable and accurate coverage. The first segment of the webcast below, taped from Suffolk University’s Studio 73, is devoted to the media’s overall performance, including CNN’s now infamous “exclusive” claiming the suspects were in custody and on their way to federal court – a report that turned out to be completely wrong.
Not to mention a completely wrong report that the Boston Herald also published, as evidenced by this uncharacteristically accurate timeline in the feisty local tabloid last week (see especially 2:23 pm):
There’s also this, from the totally excellent Chart Girl:
To be fair, the Herald’s Press Partiers totally eviscerated CNN for its misreporting, although panelist Jaclyn Cashman did say if you’re on TV for 14 hours straight, you’re gonna say stupid things.
To which Press Party host Joe Battenfeld replied, “That I understand, but getting something that wrong, that they actually had the suspects in custody an were going to federal court when obviously that was not going on, that’s what baffles me.”
Hey, Joe, here’s what baffles us: How come you never mentioned that the Herald MADE THE SAME MISTAKE?
You wanna watchdog the press?
Watchdog yourself first.
Meanwhile, crosstown at WGBH’s Beat the Press, the Big Dog tackled the same topic. (Routine disclosure: The hardwatching staff was a longtime contributor to BTP, but we drifted.)
News organizations have been covering the marathon bombings virtually around the clock for the past two weeks. A lot of that coverage has been outstanding, but as with any breaking news story there’s often a combination of the good, some bad, and a little ugly.
WGBH, to its credit (or not), failed to turn up on this Chart Girl chart of the Marathon bombings coverage.
But the BTP setup piece did take the Boston Herald to task.
One more bit of nonsense to note: A Boston Herald column claiming the liberal media was upset by cheering and flag-waving. Really? Name one. Just one.
The ‘GBH Beaters declined to beat further on the Herald.
That doesn’t mean you should.
Nice piece, HWS.
Thanks. ________________________________________
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I wonder how Herald staffers felt when they saw President Obama heap praise on the Boston Globe at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and NEVER mention the feisty tabloid? Payback is a bitch.