The person quoted is Wendy Murphy.
Wendy Murphy, a professor at the New England School of Law and a strong advocate for using litigation to advance women’s equality, said Patrick’s joining the Fly Club opens a fair inquiry into “his commitment to equality of citizens of all persons.”
Oh, Wendy’s a law professor? She’s an unbiased commentator, right?
SHE’S GOT TIES TO A RIVAL… her bio at the New England School of Law states information the Globe’s readers deserve to know:
Professor Wendy Murphy is an adjunct professor of law at New England School of Law…[and a] former assistant district attorney in Middlesex County,
If the Globe quotes a critic, the public deserves to know relevant ties that critic might have.
The important question now is, did Frank Phillips know that Wendy Murphy used to be a Middlesex ADA? If so, why didn’t he report it? If he didn’t know, why don’t editors introduce him to the website www.google.com?
[Disclosure: I’m a volunteer for Deval Patrick]
on what struck me as a remarkably pointless hit piece. Yeah, my coed fraternity was nicer and more moral than other people’s all-male fraternities, but people make their choices as undergrads for all kinds of reasons and it’s a real stretch to draw any inferences from those choices about who someone is now.
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Shouldn’t Deval be issuing position papers or something to generate some actual news about himself? I’m afraid the Harshbarger endoresement is a mixed blessing at best, as Harshbarger’s fans were probably already on board and his support plays into the “left of the party” narrative.
Frank reprints stuff, not researches it.
In the spirtit of FULL disclosure, Wendy Murphy was an assistant D.A. for Scott Harshbarger (Patrick ‘s guy), not Tom Reilly.
So if Reilly was first assistant, does that mean he was just first among equals? Or that he had authority over other ADAs?
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No matter, I think the tie is there, and worthy of reporting.
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So that readers can make up their own minds.
I thought I would play detective and look up Wendy J. Murphy, quoted in the Boston Globe’s Harvard All-Male Club ‘scandal’.
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I searched all Murphys who have donated to campaigns in MA. Yes, there is a Wendy J. Murphy, an attorney who lives in Belmont, listed on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s list of donors. However, she’s not listed as giving to Reilly nor any
of the current candidates for governor.
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Just to be cute, I then sorted by Belmont Reilly supporters and found a Fredric Ellis, an attorney of course, listed at the same address as Wendy J. He has given to Reilly quite a bit and quite recently.
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11/30/2003 Ellis, Fredric 1 Stone Road Belmont, MA 02478 $250.00 Attorney Ellis & Rapacki Reilly, Thomas F.
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12/31/2005 Ellis, Fredric 1 Stone Road Belmont, MA 02478 $500.00 Attorney Ellis & Rapacki Reilly, Thomas F.
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11/30/2004 Ellis, Fredric 1 Stone Road Belmont, MA 02478 $500.00 Attorney Ellis & Rapacki Reilly, Thomas F.
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If Deval Patrick’s membership in a club 23 years ago is relevant according to the Globe, perhaps disclosing this connection would have been as well.
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Ed from Newburyport
(disclosure: a Deval volunteer who has never belonged to a fraternity, an all-male club, nor has ever worked for the Middlesex DA’s office, did not vote for Strom Thurmond for President in 1948…anyways, let’s get back to the issues!)
Wendy Murphy has been promoting herself since she got her law degree. She is a ready willing and able talking head about victims rights. However, she runs a photo finish with Nancy Grace for lawyer most ignorant about the Bill of Rights. Why did she even bother going to law school?
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My favorite Wendy Murphy sel-promotion is when she bringing her infant child (less than 1 week old, I believe)to an oral argument she had scheduled before the Supreme Judicial Court.
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What a fraud. Like she could not get a sitter? Like she is the only working woman who ever gave birth? Like the SJC would not re-schedule for a woman attorney who gave birth less than 7 days ago? But anyway, this former new England Patriot cheerleader is all about spin and no facts.
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Funny how the media finds out about it and it gets a positive spin. Margery Egan thinks it is sooo great that this woman does it all.
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If that was my lawyer and I was paying her to do this appeal I would be pissed.
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But Wendy gets a pass.
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Now she bitches about a college freshman in 1973 joining an all male club. This issue sucks. But, to be honest, if the shoe was on the other foot, the far left would treat this candidate like he was slave owner.
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And you lefties know it.
and hope to come across more such humorous creations in the future. The way the world is going I need humor now more than ever, and I’ve always required regular heavy doses.
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BMG and BMG commentors’ info on the Globe echos my frustrations about their very shoddy reporting of health reform issues. The Globe was content to take in what likely amounted to hundreds of thousands$$$ in “Op-Ed info-mercials” revenue from the Mass. Hospital Assoc. and the Mass. Nurses Assoc. over the Safe RN to Patient Staffing bill legislation but hardly ever did any substantive reporting on this topic of truly vital importance to Globe readers. (disclosure: I am a card-carrying member of the Mass Nurses Assoc , and I am one of the thousands of nurses who will not work in a hospital again until minimum safe staffing limits are set).
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Years ago, when I wondered out loud at a meeting of the Alliance to Defend Health Care why the Globe had (and continues to have) such lackluster reporting on health policy and health reform activities in the state, a fellow health professional activist Dr. David Himmelstein remarked that some research had been done revealing a strong potential bias the Globe has in not covering health reform issues aggresively or critically. The HUGE sums in advertising revenue that the Globe enjoys taking in from our state’s health care industry, one that is characterized by market-driven competition, is a mighty powerful bias.
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BTW these huge sums paid to the Globe are coming from your and my health insurance premium payments and from our tax dollars that fund the state budget spent on health care. Before this money gets into the Globe’s bank account it is put, by us hard-working saps, into the pockets of the “Non profit charitable institution” health insurers, HMO’s, hospitals and trade associations who then spend gobs on non-healthcare expenditures.
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Don’t the AG and the SOS have a duty to exert regulatory oversight power over these non profit corporations? Might there be serious conflicts of interest or self-interest hampering their enthusiasm to fulfill these duties, especially in an election year…? Whose job is it to raise these concerns and to pursue them?
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Are you referring to the state mandated staffing ratios?
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What percentage of registered nurses in MA does your union represent?
I believe the Mass Nurses Assoc. (MNA) has about 22,000 members and that there are about 120,000 licensed RN’s in MA, so you can do the math.
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I am a member of the MNA not as a collective bargaining member, though I believe the MNA does an invaluable service in providing union representation to many of its members. In my opinion, collective bargaining is the most effective way to have power in the often grossly unequal employer-employee relationship. Personally, I pay my dues because I want to be a member of MNA as a healthcare professional. I do not receive collective bargaining services.
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Yes, MNA has been a leader in filing legislation for mandated minimum RN-to-patient staffing ratios for about 13 years now. Since about the year I graduated with my RN/MSN back in ’93. Safe staffing saves lives. I know that to be true. I have walked the walk and I am commited to working for this safety measure to become law.
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I would never send my 1 yo or 6 yo kids to a daycare without minimum mandated staffing levels–those are illegal, the others are called licensed childcare centers–so why in god’s name would I send a loved one to a hospital for open heart surgery where there is no limit on how many patients each nurse can be assigned to care for? The Institute of Medicine Report on PREVENTABLE Medical Errors might be of interest to you. It is to me, because I know that many nurses are involved in those errors (which include preventable patient deaths) and that many of them result from unsafe staffing levels and the related unreasonable and unsafe workloads.
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Even the [Dept of HHS http:/newsroom.hrsa.gov/releases/2001%20Releases/nursestudy.htm]under
Bush has commissioned studies whose results show the need for minimum RN-to-Patient staffing ratios. Too bad the corporate special interests keep blocking the enactment of mandated safe RN-to-Patient staffing levels, which has the effect of killing patients unneccessarily. What a shame. Understatement. Kinda’ leaves me speechless.
I understood that that the MNA position on required staffing ratios is the minority position, which is why I inquired of the percent of nurses were actually members.
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Also, isn’t California the only state to have adopted the government directed RN to Patient staffing ratios?
The Globe has been doing this for years. “All the news that fits, we tint.”, to misquote their parent publication. The bias critic and the nameless quote are safe from libel suit. That comes when the Globe delves in calumnies close to election day. Anyone keep track of how many have successfully sued the Globe? Is it more than the Enquirer?