Channel 2

Is that really the message WGBH wants to send?

adamg — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:59:43 +0000

Jacqui M of Somerville e-mails to say she doesn't think much of the message she spotted on the WGBH megatron by the turnpike this morning:

IT'S OK TO DRIVE AND THINK

"It just doesn't seem right to me," she writes. "I mean, what would you say if a French pastry shop had a sign that said* 'DATE CREPE IS GREAT!' ?"

Greater Boston is bigger than you think

adamg — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:07:11 +0000

Tonight on "Greater Boston," Emily Rooney discusses that pressing Boston-area issue - what Tiger Woods will say in his scripted event tomorrow.

Also: "The animal ambassador of SeaWorld & Busch Gardens joins Emily along with some of her friends: a baby kangaroo, a kookaburra, and American alligator and Magellanic penguins." Busch Gardens is on the South Shore, right?

Media fight: Can they both lose?

adamg — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:16:07 +0000

Emily Rooney vs. Dennis and Callahan.

Emily Rooney does her best Rosie O'Donnell impersonation

adamg — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:43:16 +0000

OK, OK, I got sucked in and actually watched "Greater Boston" and its expose on Balloon Boy.

What does Balloon Boy have to do with the Boston area?

adamg — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Beats me, but Emily Rooney will be discussing the case tonight on "Greater Boston," which describes itself as tackling "the region's top news stories with original reporting and comprehensive analysis."

So I look forward to her "in-depth discussions with guests from diverse perspectives" (in this case, two lawyers she dug up) that will take us "beyond the day's headlines," such as, oh, letting her explain her fantasy about punching Balloon Boy's mom in the face and knocking all her teeth out, because right now, that's about the only original thing about this case that's gone untackled.

Emily Rooney would like to punch Balloon Boy's mom in the mouth; still hates blogs

adamg — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:12:49 +0000

Rooney rants; remains amazed that a mere blog could break news.

WGBH turns giant LED mural thing back on

adamg — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:01:32 +0000

Now that they've figured out how to keep it from overheating.

WGBH furloughs workers, ends retirement contributions

adamg — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:16:18 +0000

Mandatory week off without pay all around, the Boston Business Journal reports.

WGBH needs to update its beggin' shows

adamg — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:37:28 +0000

Uncle grumps that if WGBH is going to trot out Celtic music shows for pledge week, the least it can do is get some avant-garde performances:

... Grumble grumble...buncha people in kilts with attitudes, and they didn't even have someone playing the electric bagpipe!

But did he work Pledge Week?

adamg — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:31:18 +0000

A former accountant for Channel 2 was indicted today on charges he embezzled $500,000 over nine years from the station.

Innocent, etc.

Layoffs, cutbacks at WGBH

adamg — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:19:36 +0000

The Boston Business Journal reports WGBH will let 12 employees go and is making unspecified operations changes, due to declining corporate contributions.

Why techs at Channel 2 are not allowed to drink on the job

adamg — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:50:42 +0000

From EmergencyAlertFreak2.

The Barnicle crisis needs resolution

adamg — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:22:07 +0000

WBUR should either finally hire him so people can start donating to WGBH instead or they should announce they're not hiring him so people can stop getting heartburn.

Speaking of 'GBH, Emily Rooney kvetches about the lack of substance on local newscasts these days and fantasizes about marching into some local newsroom and shaking things up. Apparently, Rooney doesn't remember the days when WGBH had its own local newscast. Instead of complaining how vapid the commercial newscasts are, why not restart it? Isn't public television supposed to provide intelligent alternatives to commercial TV? Or has it all come down to Peter, Paul and Mary concerts during Pledge Week?

The night James Brown saved Boston

adamg — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:02:15 +0000

VH1 this weekend is airing a documentary on the 40th anniversary of James Brown's concert at the Garden the day after Martin Luther King's assassination - the one then Mayor Kevin White came to realize could not be canceled - and had to be aired live on local TV (only Channel 2 put it on):

... Even in this bleakest of moments, James knows his job is to go on-stage and give the people a reason not to riot. He puts on a mesmerizing show. James Brown kept the peace in one of America's most racially inflammatory cities. And he did that just by being James Brown -- setting the stage of the Boston Garden on fire. And the city itself didn't burn. ...

WGBH page on the concert - You can listen to the entire concert and watch WGBH's own documentary on that night, "The Politics of Soul."

Via Carmen Nobel.

Here's hoping WGBH's mail server has a large hard drive

adamg — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:00:03 +0000

They'll need it for all the hate e-mail zinging its way to John Carroll now that the national Democratic blogs have picked up the story of how he and his Beat the Press-ters blew the whole blog-accountability issue the other day (see here, here and here):

... Yeah, John Carroll, intrepid investigative reporter and professor of journalism at Boston University (where standards are obviously slipping) reported that Bowers, Stoller, and Shields were all Jerome Armstrong. The source? This blatantly satiric post by Shields. Then, for good measure, the producers took a quote from Blue Mass Group blogger David Blue out of context to make it seem he was attacking Jerome. Then, the panel of know-nothings sat around lamenting the lack of accountability in the blog world, clearly feeling the heat of their impending irrelevance. ...

The show posted a correction today, but the Kossistas are not satisfied - the post is followed by 70 replies (as I type), many accusing not just Carroll but Emily Rooney of being, at best, idiots.

At the Dig, Joe Keohane suggests bloggers and their minions get a grip:

... Look, people are right to be annoyed. Lecturing someone on having no standards and then getting the facts wrong is sloppy and embarrassing as hell. But Carroll was right to raise the point of blogger ethics, because the more widely read and influential blogs are, the more important it becomes to figure out where information is coming from. He did it poorly, ate shit and issued a correction. It's over. So let's call off the e-jihad (e-had?). By the tone of these things, we're just one unflattering caricature of Kos away from rioting in the streets. ...

The Outraged Liberal agrees:

... I still believe we need to develop thicker skins if we want to dish it. out.