Media
Globe meteor headline: Love it or hate it
By adamg - 2/16/13 - 5:30 pm
People are either loving the nod to Thomas Pynchon (specifically, the first line of Gravity's Rainbow) or hating it.
One person took issue not with the Pynchon reference, but with the subhead: "But it was not a huge meteor."
Interestingly, online, the Globe went all boring, replacing the Pynchon with "Meteorite alarms residents in Russian city."
Longtime local talk host Paul Benzaquin dies
By adamg - 2/14/13 - 4:35 pmBenzaquin, also author of a book on the Cocoanut Grove fire, was 90.
Save Susan Tran
By adamg - 2/9/13 - 11:10 amThe Channel 7 reporter has been stationed on Plum Island since yesterday. This morning, she reported from a porch that had waves crashing into its base as debris from destroyed neighboring houses floated out to see.
Then her signal went dead. Anchor Adam Williams then assured viewers: "Our crews don't stand in areas that are dangerous or are susceptible to any damage."
We learned 30 or so minutes later that Tran was safe, as she reported - by phone - that she had moved to a new location. In fact, she was inside, inside a house whose owner assured her it was designed to handle these conditions. Then she casually mentioned she was hearing "booming" from where waves and debris from destroyed houses were crashing into the house's foundations. Williams asked if she was sure she was safe.
Somebody at Channel 4's gonna be really sorry if Jack Williams loses his ears
By adamg - 2/8/13 - 7:19 pmMaybe the same person who thought it would be a good idea to have Williams and Lisa Hughes anchor the news while standing outside in the station parking lot. Williams, being a man's man, of course, just stood there without a hat. They finally got him back inside, and by the looks of things just in time - his face was bright red.
File this under
By roadman - 2/8/13 - 7:09 pm"a totally clueless action by the media."
As has been well reported by several news outlets (and on this blog), a total travel ban is now currently in effect in Massachusetts. Yet, at least one of the local stations is continuing to broadcast traffic reports.
We'll give that a drink and a half
By adamg - 2/8/13 - 1:33 pmChannel 7's Nancy Chen just checked in from a hill in Worcester. Drink! Then she bent down and picked up some snow to make a snowball. But, darn, the snow was so dry, it just disintegrated. So we'll rate than a half drink.
It begins
By adamg - 2/6/13 - 9:48 pm
Frank Solensky photographed the bread aisle at the Somerville Stop & Shop this evening.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 reporters tonight warmed up for their team coverage of Snowpocalypse '13. With no snow on the ground to fashion into a snowball, Sean Kelly started a report by holding a tree branch for emphasis. Jack Harper, however, found a sand or dirt pile with a thin coating of snow, to which he could point with the ruler he of course happened to have. He was showing how high snow got in the Blizzard of '78 or something. And Ed Harding urged viewers to charge their tablets and phones now, so they can keep watching Channel 5 online if need be - apparently not thinking that if the power goes out, those viewers won't be able to use their WiFi to watch him.
Come snowmageddon or aquapocalypse, Fred Somers is ready.
Dorchester paper hires ombudsman to review coverage of Senate race involving owner's wife
By adamg - 2/6/13 - 3:36 pmThe Dorchester Reporter has hired an outside editor to keep tabs of its coverage of the 1st Suffolk Senate race of Linda Dorcena Forry, whose husband, Bill, is publisher of the paper and the Boston Haitian Reporter and Mattapan Reporter.
Michael Jonas, executive editor of CommonWealth magazine, and a long-time Dorchester resident, will review the paper's coverage of her race this spring to replace recently resigned state Sen. Jack Hart.
[Jonas] will be reviewing the Reporter newspapers' coverage of the campaign for the First Suffolk State Senate seat, receiving and exploring reader feedback, and publishing his findings in a regular column and online at DotNews.com.
Pine no more, Braude and Eagan fans
By adamg - 2/6/13 - 10:35 amWGBH says its hiring the former WTKK talkers to talk away between noon and and 2 p.m. on weekdays on its "Boston Public Radio" show. The move frees up Callie Crossley and Emily Rooney, who currently hold down the microphones then, to do other things, although the station says they'll continue to get some words in edgewise on the show. 'GBH adds that Edgar B. Herwick III will continue to contribute to the show after the changeover on Feb. 25.
Pete Bouchard worries if we've gotten too soft
By adamg - 2/6/13 - 8:20 am
Blizzard of '78 aftermath in Revere. Photo by Jessica O'Brien. Posted under this CC license.
On the 11 o'clock news last night, Bouchard seemed worried that, after two years of little snow, we wouldn't know how to deal with the foot of snow the National Weather Service now says we could get, starting as early as Thursday night.
Does he have a point? Should the French Toast Alert Level be raised to Orange? Or will the genes from our collective history (35 years ago today, folks) kick in?
