Apparently, the Herald has been scooping up stories up from Google News without checking to see if they're actually true. Editor vows to cut that right out, but in the meantime, if you picked up today's paper, no, Dick Cheney did not challenge Hillary Clinton to a hunting match.

Black Monday at WBZ-TV.

Meanwhile, Amy Derjue catches Herald Honcho Kevin Convey chanting "We're number 2! We're number 2!" because the latest Metro audit numbers show the freebie now has a smaller circulation than the Herald. Which, given that it's given out for free, might seem hard to do.

David Wedge sexes up a story about local officials seeking lots of Prop. 2 1/2 overrides this year by gasping that Prop. 2 1/2 is "under siege."

No, Dave, it isn't. Prop. 2 1/2 has always had provisions for letting voters override its limits. It's a fundamental part of the law. And if it's part of the law, then it becomes stupid to write that local officials are "asking homeowners to ignore Proposition 2 1/2" (and in any case, overrides apply to all property owners in a city or town, not just homeowners, and even renters are free to vote on them).

Click on through for a rockem-sockem loosey-goosey summary of the media coverage of this story, which was varied to say the least. Will the grand but lightweight Globe take the short-but-sweet prize for best writeup? Or will the rough, battle-hardened Herald take the Globe to the cleaners? What about the litter transit pulp papers? How do the Kings of Swooshing Animations and Lead-Ins fare?

First up, at 194 words: Maria Cramer, from The Globe:

The Herald today shows some ink-stained lovin' for David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center:

... In a business that is an uncertain venture at best, it wasn't the first time David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, has proven more accurate than larger pollsters.

In New Hampshire, where Obama beat Clinton by 3 percentage points, Suffolk showed Obama winning by 5, compared with Zogby, which showed him leading by 13. ...

You don't say.

Adam Reilly highlights other examples of Paleologos "accuracy". Blue Mass. Group: Egg, meet face.

Ever get the feeling that when Howie Carr gets pressed for time, he just repastes a series of insults into his word processor? Joe Keohane helps to prove the point by looking up all the times Carr has made a "Jacques, rhymes with Fakes" crack about Cheryl Jacques, nominated this week for a judgeship, and so the subject of Carr's column today (as Keohane notes: "Naturally, because she's a politician who isn't dead or Steve Murphy, and is appearing in Carr's column, she's in for a beating.").

Greg Gatlin to rep for Suffolk University.

UPDATE: Looks like the supply truck came in; the story's been updated with an apostrophe and an 'e'.

Stupor Tuesday? Tom Menino in a Giants uniform? All because Menino wants to come up with a plan to keep drunken college students from going on a rampage IF the Patriots win?

Also, WBZ 1030? That poll about whether Bostonians would rather go to a Patriots rally or vote on Tuesday? What drugs did you take when you came up with that? It's not like it's really an either/or thing, unless, of course, there are no police present, because Menino stupidly decides the Herald is right and rips up his police plan and the rally becomes the parade out of the first Batman/Joker movie (you know, the one with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson) and thousands of terrified office workers can't get home to vote because they're trapped in a murderous downtown hellhole by hundreds of marauding, angel-dust encrusted drunken college students.

Just sign me,

Curmudgeon for a Day.