Boston Herald

The Herald isn't one to take rejection by city health officials lightly. Today, it accuses hippies of stinking up South Station, because, as is well known, there were never unkempt people washing themselves in South Station restrooms or asking for money until before Occupy Boston started.

The Herald sic'ed roughly half its entire reporting staff (yes, six reporters) on the most urgent public-health crisis facing Boston today: Occupy Boston. The scrappy tabloid urgently warns us today that Dewey Square is a ticking time bomb of a fetid cesspool of disease-ridden, overripe hippies and vermin. The paper does, however, note the presence of hand sanitizer at the encampment.

Following the recent unpleasantness, Somerville mayor Joe Curtatone surprised the crowd at the city's Halloween parade with an unexpected disguise today.

Dan Kennedy analyzes the Globe's explanation on how it found the identity of the woman who turned in Bulger and why it didn't put her at any more risk than she already faced - thanks to the FBI saying a few months ago that the winning tip came from Iceland and, really, how many Icelanders would Bulger and Grieg have run across in Santa Monica? Also, he recalls how the rampaging Herald kept mocking the Icelandic connection until it got showed up on basic street reporting (the Globe got the name by talking to neighbors, doh).

Dan Kennedy analyzes a judge's decision that the Herald has the right to report on court proceedings and documents, even if they happen to involve a libel suit against the paper, in this case by Boston band member Tom Scholz in a libel suit over an Inside Track column on the death of lead singer Brad Delp:

The Herald is still at risk over its 2007 reports. [The judge] recently dismissed Scholz's suit against Micki Delp, ruling that the statements at issue were solely the Herald's responsibility. Yesterday's ruling, though, was a victory not just for the Herald, but for the First Amendment - and all of us.

They probably won't be renaming the Seaport Center on D Street New Wingo Square, however.

"In a posting on a website supportive of the Democratic Party," is as close as our Paper of Record gets to helping its readers read Warren's post in its entirety.

The Herald dared mention Blue Mass. Group, as did every other media outlet across the country that wrote about the post.

Buyouts first, then, if those don't work, layoffs.

More than boarded up houses. More than used condoms and broken glass strewn across vacant lots. More than blood splattered on sidewalks. "Nothing says urban blight" like clothes drying outside, Michelle McPhee warns us.

The Globe reports developers have filed plans to build 262 apartments and stores on the site of the soon to be ex-Herald building.

Depends on whether you read the Globe or Herald, John Carroll reports, in the latest chapter of the "It's good to live in a two-paper town" story.

Thin-skinned flacks show displeasure at Romney op-ed piece; ban Herald from today's traffic blocker visit.

You know it's bad when even the Outraged Liberal rises to the Herald's support.

But it is curious that Howie Carr didn't weigh in; you'd think Bariatric Boy would relish the idea to spend 10 minutes with his thesaurus stringing together several paragraphs worth of insults. Oh, right, he has more important stuff to do, like insult the Kennedys.

Herald looks to save money, lay off truck drivers.

He's a lawyer involved in the DiMasi case, but after reading Globe and Herald accounts, John Carroll can't figure out which DiMasi pal he's representing.

South End Patch reports on an initial proposal for replacing the Boston Herald building that calls for a 4-5 story residential and store complex - and that some nearby residents decried the building as "too suburban" for the gritty area.

It's a story only the Herald could love: Blue bloods boil over noise of medical helicopters, complete with a classic Herald front page that makes the case that Beacon Hill residents would rather see poor people in medical helicopters headed to Mass. General die than disturb their peace.

Kennedy famously made sure Rupert Murdoch had to choose between keeping Channel 25 and the Herald (a couple decades after the feds stripped the Herald-Traveler of its TV license) and now the Federal Highway Administration thinks the state should make Herald owner Pat Purcell take down the billboard atop the (eventually to be former) Herald plant next to the Expressway.

The FHA also expresses ire over the giant banner on the Fenway Community Health Center building on Boylston Street in the Fenway, which is right next to, um, er, hey, what highway is it next to again?

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today threw out a lawsuit against the Herald and Michele McPhee by an inmate who placed an online dating ad even though their story falsely accused him of manslaughter and "brutal sexual attack on an elderly woman."

In its ruling, the court said Edmond R. LaChance Jr. did not exactly cover himself in glory by omitting from his "Inmate Connection" ad that he was in maximum security for rape and aggravated rape. The court ruled that McPhee's 2005 articles on the dangers of hooking up with inmates online were based on state records which turned out to be incorrect, not because of any "actual malice" on McPhee's part.

Wah, poor Howie Carr is upset Scott Brown went to "60 Minutes" to shill his book instead of to him.

Wah, poor Mike Andelman at the Phantom Gourmet is upset a hostess at Grill 23 wouldn't seat him and his fellow Phantom Gourmet'er before the dining room opened:

It's 5 o'clock, and guess what, if the owner of Grill 23 was standing next to this dumb hostess, this moronic hostess who was just getting her, uh, jollies off by sticking to the rules of her little brochure in a little binder, this little monkey, her only job is to look at this binder and say don't let people in 'till 5:30. ...

Dan: Although in her defense she was good-looking apparently. I'd like to see a picture. Was she wearing yoga pants? These are things I want to know. I have a thing for hostesses.

The Herald declares "experts stunned" that Barney Frank announced he's running for re-election in 2012, then fails to actually quote any experts expressing their shocked amazement (because they all fainted at the news and hit their heads on the floor?). Sean Bielat, however, managed to steady himself by grabbing onto the newel post, at least long enough to express his shock.

The Herald does have one quote from one expert, but only about the general implications for the redistricting the legislature will have to do because we're losing a congressional seat. The paper fails to note what happened the last time the legislature had to do that (Frank ran against another sitting member of congress and beat her).

Via the Outraged Liberal.

The Herald's foreign-correspondent approach to the Whole Foods/Hi-Lo news continues today. Peter Gelzinis, who normally knows better, rushes so fast to get to the class-warfare angle that he loses his way to the real story.

First, the "earthy-crunchy" set in Jamaica Plain doesn't have to drive to Cambridge for organic tomatoes, as Gelzinis claims. Even if they hate the two earthy-crunchy City Feeds, the Harvest and the organic-tomato-carrying Stop & Shop, your average non-Herald-reader would have a much shorter trip driving up to the Whole Foods in Brighton or the Trader Joe's in Coolidge Corner. More important, though, Gelzinis leaves the really outrageous part until the end: The fact that the Hi-Lo workers were treated like dirt. But that would have been a shorter column and isn't as much fun writing about as feeling morally superior to middle-aged hippies.

Both the Globe and the Herald parachuted reporters into exotic and beguiling Jamaica Plain yesterday to cover the news - broken last week by the Jamaica Plain Gazette - that the Hi-Lo is being replaced by a Whole Foods. Both stories read like dispatches from foreign correspondents earning a bit extra by writing something for the travel section, for audiences looking for the next hot locale to jet to.

The Herald starts its report by informing us that Jamaica Plain is "earthy-crunchy," but subtly warns the Hi-Lo is located in "a gritty neighborhood in transition," which the cognoscenti know translates to "lock the doors on the Land Rover" while on safari there.

Also, the Herald informs us, JP has a "funky mosaic" of "young families, hipsters and Hispanic residents who could benefit from the foodie paradise and the jobs it will bring."

Steve Buckley reports he is gay.

Sean Roche wonders:

How in God's name could Buckley endured all the homophobia on WEEI for all those years?

At least their resident fatboy had the decency to admit he got his surgery for free. The sad thing for the Herald is Chubby got the freebie because of his radio gig (you know, the one he hates), not because of his crusading journalism in print.

The Outraged Liberal has more.

Fitzgerald's maudlin Christmas column today (about some woman who hasn't talked to her daughter in years) got me to thinking: Hey, waitaminnit, what about his annual The Jew Who Loves Christmas column? Why, his column about a Jew fighting the War on Christmas is as much a part of Christmas in Boston as the Enchanted Village the tree at the Prudential Center Santas in Speedos. Turns out I was just remiss in my Herald reading: Joe dredged up another Christmas-loving Jew earlier this month. Phew. Eggnog, anyone?