The boring tabloid?

Sean McCarthy writes for the Herald, so you might expect him to care about goings-on at that paper, but he does raise an interesting question about Boston's own Professional Media Critic: Does Mark Jurkowitz realize the Globe isn't the only daily newspaper published inside Rte. 128?

Since Dec. 28, Jurkowitz has posted 14 items about newspapers on his Media Log. Eight mention the Globe. Three mention the New York Times. One mentions the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. None mention the Herald. He wrote fairly extensively about how the Globe changed its front page during the miner disaster without once mentioning how the Herald did the same thing.

Ah, well. I'd go back farther in the Media Log archives, but, um, there aren't any, at least none that are visible from the new Media Log page (also gone: the Atom feed and links to actual items from the Phoenix home page). Maybe I'll just go read his big Don't Quote Me piece this week that promises an answer to the question that's vexed us all: How will Boston survive without Maureen Dezell?

OK, so I'll head over to Johnny Bag O'Donuts for some in-depth Herald criticism, in this case an examination of today's Herald front page:

... Let's start with the biggest story, "Violent muggers stalk hub." They're coming to get you! Fearmongering is in the house. The story details muggings in Dorchester, JP, Charlestown and Hyde Park, but the picture behind the humongous headline shows Landsdowne Street, specifically Axis, for what I can only imagine is no reason at all. Even better, it's one of those pictures where a passing car looks like a trail of lights. What I think the Herald is getting at, which is pretty terrifying, is that The Flash is running around Boston, mugging people and then stopping off at Axis for some club drugs and high-speed dancing.

Better again, it looks a little bit like The Flash is running out of the bottom of a giantic Hillary Swank's dress. Hillary Swank, apparently, is extrememly fashionable whilst terrorizing Landsdowne street King Kong-style, and the Herald thinks this is very important. ...

My standard newspaper disclosure.