The hardwatching staff is a little late to the Great Boston MediaWatch Dogfight this week, but hey – we were distracted by Rafael Nadal’s epic dismantling of Novak Djokovic in the French Open semifinal (and subsequent dispatching of David Ferrer in the final), and the Chicago Blackhawks’ disposing of the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL’s Western Conference Finals.

Not to mention the Broons Broom of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals.

But we’re back now, so let’s go to the local media hall monitors.

Start, as per usual, with the Underdog: The Boston Herald’s Press Party, which led with “[t]he media circus around the Whitey Bulger trial and attempts by Bulger to keep Herald columnist Howie Carr out of the courtroom.”

The Wayne’s World webcast featured an interview (“Herald’s Howie Carr faces Whitey’s wrath” – beautiful!), in which the drive-by Carr said . . . well . . . not much.

“It’s kind of strange,” he told Press Party impresario Joe Battenfeld. “The Bulger lawyers would like to stop me from reporting on the trial, just like they would like the other [that is, Boston Globe] reporters not to be allowed to report on the trial.”

Stop the presses, eh?

Press Party panelist Michele McPhee also stated that the Globe’s Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy “can’t cover the trial,” despite the fact that the judge in the Bulger case had already lifted the ban on the Globe duo.

Regardless . . .

Crosstown, Big Dog Beat the Press (Most. Annoying. Website. Ever.), featured a soundbite from Murphy (“[Bulger] hates us – he’s called me words that I can’t say on camera in letters he wrote to a friend that we’ve obtained, and he’s called Kevin Cullen ‘a lowlife'”) and at least knew the two Globies had been cleared for coverage by US District Court judge Denise J. Casper.

Hey, Joe: Maybe you should go back to live-streaming Friday at 7.

Special Campaign Outsider Bonus:

The best Hey Joe ever.