The Herald is clearly enjoying the fact that the Globe appears to have been duped by a former Modern Continental employee who anonymously sent them (though he first denied it was him) what now appears to have been a faked memo about ceiling bolts.
The shots taken by the Herald include the following varieties of Schadenfreude:
- Hoisting them by their own petard: The Herald found a bunch of media critics who say that running the story without allowing Modern Continental to respond first violates a 2003 memo by Globe editor Martin Baron on journalistic ethics.
- Calling the source’s reliability into question: The Herald found another memo by the same guy, ex-inspector John Keaveney, that did not include information on slipping ceiling bolts, even though another inspector had noted exactly that in the same tunnel one day earlier.
- Calling the source’s character into question: The Herald found out that Keaveney violently assaulted another Big Dig employee to the point that police had to be called.
- Upping the ante: The Herald found “legal experts” who say that if the memo really is fake, “the legal fallout could range from libel suits to a criminal probe.”
- Sharing the Schadenfreude: The Herald posted a poll asking whether you’re surprised by the “Boring Broadsheet’s blunder” on this. Your two possible responses: “Yes, I used to trust them,” and “No, they’ve been down this road a few times already.”
- Letting Howie loose on them: Money quote: “Memo to the Globe: Hire a few people who know the streets, and I dont mean Brattle Street.” Here’s the rest.
- Laughing their asses off: The title of this Herald article says it all: “Got memo writer’s block? Try these tips.”
No one ever said competition was pretty!
Please share widely!
“The Herald found a bunch of media critics who say that running the story without allowing Modern Continental to respond first violates a 2003 memo by Globe editor Martin Baron on journalistic ethics.”
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This reminds me of when the Globe made a big ruckus over Peter Quinn’s (OpenDocument) supposed travel improprieties last year. IIRC, the Globe ran the story over Thanksgiving Day without contacting Quinn’s superior, who was off for the holiday weekend. When they did hear from him the next week, it turned out that there weren’t any improprieties, but Quinn’s reputation was already damaged at that point,
Oh, if only the Herald could stop mocking the pompous Globe and do real newspaper reporting. Neither rag seems worthy of wrapping fish.
The doomed tabloid has published nary a word about a film critic it used extensively, Paul Sherman, who was convicted of uploading 117 advance copies of movies to the internet in exchange for cash. Think he would have gotten advance DVDs if he didn’t ask for them in connection with Herald reviews?
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It’s a federal case http://0225.0145.01….
in which jail terms of up to 30 months have been handed out. Seems they were uploading movies prior to release to so-called warez Internet sites.
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Say what you will about the Globe; It’s mistakes are right there in the storefront window. I can’t imagine it covering up the misdeeds of one of its staffers the way the Herald has.