New York Times

New York paper caught pirating another copyrighted article from Boston

adamg — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:45:28 +0000

Oops, they did it again. The New York Times, which hates when people post copies of its work, posted a copy of a Boston Review article without permission. The Phoenix's Carly Carioli, who called out the Gray Lady for posting a story now owned by the Phoenix just the other day, does the honors again:

How many more examples of this hypocrisy will we have to uncover before the Times begins to acknowledge that the problem isn't merely piracy -- the problem is a copyright law written so stringently that not even a newspaper with the resources of the New York Times can comply with it? As several commenters on our original post have pointed out, under some of the proposed language for SOPA and PIPA, a website that engaged in copyright infringement equivalent to the Times's hosting of our article could be blocked from the DNS registry.

That was the entire point of my first post: that the copyright fundamentalism advocated by big-media barons like Keller and the Times is counterproductive -- even to newspapers like the Times.

A downtown hub is missed by the Times

Cynic — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 01:37:11 +0000

The Grey Lady takes note of the giant hole at One Franklin Street. But it would be nice if at some point in her three years as the Boston Bureau Chief, the Times' Abby Goodnough had figured out that the shorthand for Filene's Basement is The Basement. Instead, the Times promises its readers that soon we will have "a new Filene’s for the bargain hungry." That would be something.

But that pales in comparison to this memorable passage:

For nearly a century, Filene's Basement was as renowned a monument as Fenway Park and Faneuil Hall - a plaque out front commemorated Filene's as the "Hub of the Universe."

Where to begin? The plaque was for Filene's, not for The Basement, a distinction that utterly eludes the Times. It was put there by the store's owner, not by its adoring public. And it was a riff on the Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quote from which this blog takes its name. The implicit point was that if a century before, Bostonians had centered their universe on the State House, by the mid-twentieth century, commerce had supplanted politics and they looked toward Downtown Crossing.

It'd be nice if the features that purport to offer local color managed to offer a scene that locals might recognize as their own.

Modern-day Boston in a nutshell by the New York Times

adamg — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:39:46 +0000

All the news that's fit to print about Boston: Now that the Big Dig is done, Paul Revere wouldn't recognize the place. You can get some great Italian food in Little Italy - which is also the place to rub shoulders with "Sam Adams-swilling frat boys." Boston hipsters drink 'Gansetts instead of PBR. Boston still sucks when compared to New York, but we have some cute little restaurants, some with music (and remember: "you can't visit Boston, smell a salt breeze and not want to eat seafood"). A note to Harvard legacies: "Relive your Head of the Charles days" by renting a sailboat at Community Boating.

Two Vastly Different Headlines, Same Story

david_yamada — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:02:08 +0000

This morning's boston.com ran this headline and subhead describing yesterday's Presidential appearance at the Republican Congressional retreat in Baltimore:

Obama, GOP exchange scoldings in rare debate
President Obama denied he was a Bolshevik, Republicans denied they were obstructionists, and both sides denied they were to blame for toxic politics. (New York Times)

Here's the headline and subhead on nytimes.com describing the same event:

Off Script, Obama and the G.O.P. Vent Politely
By PETER BAKER and CARL HULSE
President Obama attended a House Republican retreat for a robust debate on policies and politics with the opposition, a rarity in the scripted world of American politics.

This would make an interesting case study for a business ethics class

adamg — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:14:51 +0000

Seems Mary Tripsas, a Harvard Business School professor, accepted a free flight to 3M's headquarters, then wrote about how wonderful its "innovation" center in her New York Times column. Only problem, as NYTpicker points out, The Times says freelancers aren't supposed to accept free trips from companies they write about. Prof says she was invited because she teaches at Harvard, not because she writes for the Times, so everything's cool.

Via Shots in the Dark.

Boston reporter among those let go by the Times today

adamg — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:54:40 +0000

Sara Rimer, who chronicled Boston's monied class and intelligentsia for the Times, was laid off today, along with a couple dozen other Times writers.

The telegraph line to New York must've been down again

adamg — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:35:38 +0000

The Times published a nice obituary for Brother Blue the other day - three weeks after his death. And, of course, this being the Times, they couldn't rely on other media accounts of his death: "The death was confirmed by his wife, Ruth."

Via eagle-eyed John Carroll.

Provincial New Yorkers think Bostonians don't eat burgers

adamg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:33:11 +0000

It's true! Look at this headline from today's Times: New York Burger Stand on Boston's Seafood Turf?

Times looking at regional editions even as it tries to ditch the Globe

adamg — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:32:35 +0000

The Times itself reports the paper is planning a San Francisco edition featuring local news - as is the Wall Street Journal:

In addition to planning a San Francisco edition, The Times is exploring the prospects for regional editions based in other cities.

Via John Carroll, already wondering whether the Times would unload the Globe, then promptly launch a Boston edition (then again, anybody remember when the Times tried a New England section?).

Maureen Dowd, professional d-bag

adamg — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:28:24 +0000

Who knew New York Times columnists were so sensitive? Thanks to Chris Faraone at the Phoenix, we now know that Mo Mo doesn't read what people write about her on the Internet because it would hurt her feelings. So what does she do? She hurts our feelings, by quoting some pointyheaded douche from the New Republic:

The Internet is like closing time at a blue-collar bar in Boston. Everyone's drunk and ugly and they're going to pass out in a few minutes.

Dude, of course, went to Harvard, so I'm figuring him to be the model for that blowhard in "Good Will Hunting" who lost the girl to the guy from Southie.

Cullen: NYT Co. as loan shark

neilv — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:39:32 +0000

Globe columnist Cullen likens relationship between Globe and NYT Co. to that between debtor and loan shark. Overall, it reads like a resigned realist, laying it out.

This installment of the loansharking metaphor is relatively free of violence, but tune in for the next exciting episode.

How quaint: New York Times dispatches foreign stringer to the wilds of Boston

adamg — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:52:55 +0000

The Times stereotypes Boston natives as quivering in fear of ~~giant metal birds that belch smoke~~ losing yet another local institution to sophisticated New Yorkers. The Outraged Liberal ~~shakes an ox bone at the metal beast~~ explains why it's just more proof of how out of touch the Manhattan Overlords are:

... I personally think we're over the "faraway headquarters" angst -- something the faraway owners of the Times should have recognized awhile ago, if they paid attention. BankBoston, John Hancock, Gillette. That's so 20th Century.

In fact, we've adapted quite well to Google and Microsoft entering our midst to provide employment for folks with an affinity to MIT, that other major Cambridge institution whose name does not begin with an H.

No offense to Perez-Pena, but the assignment seemed as if it were described as "find out why those people are so upset." The folks in charge in Manhattan seem to be totally out of touch with the reality of Boston today. ...

Ed. note: Also, the reporter was obviously relying on outdated clips, because he thinks the Filene's building is still standing.

Ted Kennedy lets the Globe know he's still alive - via the pages of the New York Times

adamg — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:52:52 +0000

He won't talk to the Globe for its weeklong eulogy, but he will talk to the New York Times:

... He considers unnecessary what his son Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island calls "the premature eulogizing," or what Mr. Biden terms "a bordering on an obituary," that has accompanied his life in recent months.

"Obviously I've been touched and grateful," Mr. Kennedy said in a phone interview Friday from the rented home in Miami where he has spent most of the winter. "Beyond that, I don't really plan to go away soon." ...

Via the Outraged Liberal, who wonders what sort of discussions went on among Globe editors today as they picked up their copies of the Times.

The Atlantic reports of the woes of the New York Times (and how that affects the Boston Globe)

ShadyMilkMan — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:30:34 +0000

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/new-york-times

...It could sell The Boston Globe-or shutter it entirely, given what the company itself has acknowledged is a challenging time for the sale of media properties. It could sell its share in the Boston Red Sox, close or sell various smaller properties, or off-load About.com, the resolutely unglamorous Web purchase that has been virtually the only source of earnings growth in the Times Company's portfolio. With these steps, or after them, would come mass staffing cuts, no matter that the executive editor, Bill Keller, promised otherwise...

What would Boston look like if our daily newspaper option was the Boston Herald? What if the Boston Phoenix was the best source of news in the city? I guess the folks over in Newton would be spared having to share their content with Boston.com as well. Speaking of, Boston.com as a name must be worth quite a bit, how much would it be worth and who would be willing to pay for it?

So this guy goes to college in Boston

adamg — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:00:34 +0000

And based on his four years here, concludes he knows Boston well enough to condemn it for all time - and then bolsters his all-knowing conclusion with a book about stuff that happened when the Red Sox were owned by people who haven't had anything to do with the team for years, because they're dead.

Via Jeff Egnaczyk.