Boston being the Cathaholic hub that it is, the hardreading staff is not surprised at the hallelujah chorus in today’s local papers.
Start with the Boston Herald, which doesn’t measure its coverage of newly minted Pope Francis I, it weighs it.
Page One of our feisty local tabloid:
And then . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
From our Late to the (St. Pat’s Day) Party desk
First it was the gays and lesbians who couldn’t march in the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Now it’s the Republican U.S. Senate hopefuls who can’t attend the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.
Wednesday’s Boston Herald Page One:
The Hillary Chabot/Joe Battenfeld piece . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
The hardlearning staff, being a double-Jebbie (Fordham Prep class of ’67, Xavier University class of ’71), couldn’t be more pleased with new Pope Francis I, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina.
Not that it really matters to us: Our Catholicism lapsed like a magazine subscription 45 years ago.
But we also remember when Black Pope Pedro Arrupe took on Pius XII back in the ’60s, much to the consternation of Cathaholics worldwide.
Now the Jesuits, who were great teachers but hell on Saturday night, have finally gotten their moment.
Somewhere, Pedro Arrupe is smiling.
The hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider has long chronicled the vagaries of WordPress in a series themed Don’t Look a Gift Host in the Mouth.
Now it’s the hardtracking staff’s turn.
From paidContent:
Where WordPress is headed: Longform content, curation and maybe even native ads
WordPress is a content company, CEO Matt Mullenweg stressed in a panel Saturday at SXSW Interactive — and longform content is an area that the company is especially interested in. That could include native ads.
“All the stuff that’s done really well on mobile has been incredibly short form and easily scannable,” Mullenweg told AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher. “I think there’s a space … to sit down and read something longer than a couple of seconds. Rather than the coffee line experience, what’s the sitting-down-in-the-back experience? We’re going to keep experimenting.”
Really scary statement . . .
Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.
The scramble for the U.S. Senate set vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry (D- Hey Theresa – I Have My Own Plane Now) has officially hit third gear with the release of TV spots by the Democratic primary contenders.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Wanna See My Union Card?) just debuted this ad:
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Hellacious Combover) has countered with this spot:
Stephen Lynch’s working-class parents vs. Ed Markey’s Charlton Heston windup doll.
Excellent throwdown.
From our Hark! The Herald! desk
This is one story our feisty local tabloid has owned.
From Chris Cassidy’s Boston Herald report (the online version) . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at Saturday’s Gridiron Club dinner, which proves each year that the Beltway-industrial complex is one rolling cocktail party for politicians and the news media.
Via Politico’s Playbook (sorry no link – we’re still iPadlocked):
“Great to see the new Senator from Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren. My staff tells me we have a lot in common. Well, from one Indian politician to another, I want to wish you all the best in your new job.”
Ha-hah! Jindal’s from India, Warren’s from Indian.
Get it?
Yesterday the hardworking staff unfairly piled on New York Times freelancer Bobby Allyn, who was the object of one of the paper’s corrections. (Sorry no link – we’re iPadlocked.)
In doing so, we violated rule number one of journalism mishaps: There but for the grace of God and etc.
For that we are truly sorry, and we sincerely apologize to Mr. Allyn.
And so we say to ourselves what J.J. Hunsecker said to the philandering U.S. Senator in Sweet Smell of Success (sorry no link – we’re and etc.):
Go thou and sin no more.
Two different – but not necessarily contradictory – takes in the local dailies about former Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill’s close call with the law over financial shenanigans in the Bay State’s 2010 gubernatorial race.
First up: Joan Vennochi’s column in Thursday’s Boston Globe:
With Cahill, a good law and a weak case
IT’S EASY when it’s cash stuffed between a state senator’s breasts or checks funneled through a law partner directly into the pockets of the speaker of the House.
It’s harder — as it should be — when a case for political corruption consists of a feel-good lottery ad campaign that cost taxpayers $1.5 million but never mentions the name of the state treasurer who ordered it up. Those are the underlying facts in the case that Attorney General Martha Coakley brought against former state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill.
While treasurer, Cahill spent public money to advance a personal political agenda — his failed campaign for governor. A new state law makes it a crime for politicians to do that — if prosecutors can show “fraudulent intent.” But in the case against Cahill, the evidence of fraudulent intent simply wasn’t strong enough.
That’s the legal angle. Peter Gelzinis had the human angle in his Friday Boston Herald column . . .
Read the rest at It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town.
From Friday’s New York Times Corrections:
NATIONAL
An article on Feb. 19 about the debate over a $2.6 billion effort to build two bridges linking Kentucky and southern Indiana contained a number of errors.
That number being seven – count ’em, seven – not to get technical about it.
To wit:
Of the two bridges, it is the one known as the Downtown bridge, in Louisville — not the so-called East End bridge — that would potentially affect historic homes in Jeffersonville, Ind.
The main reasons that the River Fields conservancy group opposes the East End bridge are concerns that the bridge would not significantly improve traffic or address all safety issues — not because of the possible effects on the homes in Jeffersonville.
Besides River Fields, the National Trust for Historic Preservation was also a plaintiff in a settlement that ordered the two states to set aside money to help preserve and relocate some of the Jeffersonville properties.
The primary factor in delays of the bridges’ construction has been one of financing — not the lawsuit brought by the two groups.
The project has substantial federal financing; it is not the case that federal support is “not much.” (Federal funds are estimated to cover at least 60 percent and perhaps as high as 80 percent of the cost.)
Although planning for an eastern bridge began about 40 years ago, the two-bridge project has not been under debate for 40 years.
And a correction in this space on Saturday was published in error, before research had been completed on all of the questions raised about the article. That correction also erroneously stated that the East End bridge might affect the homes in Jeffersonville.
Not to get technical about it, but the reporter being thusly taken to the woodshed is Bobby Allyn.
Hey, Bobby. As William Baldwin said to the corrupt politician in Backdraft: “You see that glow flashing in the corner of your eye? That’s your career dissipation light. It just went into high gear.”
Sorry.
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