Here is Chabot’s lead:
BOSTON — First there was the million-dollar gala.
Then there were the helicopter rides.
Now Gov. Deval Patrick is spending taxpayer dollars on staff for his wife.
The state has hired a $72,000-a-year chief of staff whose sole job will be to schedule Diane Patrick’s public appearances and media availabilities, The Sentinel & Enterprise has learned.
Compare that to what Barbara Anderson had to say in paragraph 13:
“This could be just the beginning. There was the big gala, the helicopter, and now the wife with paid staff,” Anderson said. “He’s creating an image of royal governorship that we’re not accustomed to at all.”
It’s been a long time since I wrote for a newspaper, but I can’t imagine that using a paraphrase of the only critical source in your story as your lead is an acceptable practice. Where was the editor when this story was filed?
Oh wait. The editor of the Sentinel already showed his hand during the election by cobbling together a series of Republican attacks against Patrick and placing it on the “Local News” section of the paper online.
Faced with the choice between journalism and partisanship, we know where the Sentinel will come down.
Ah the Sentinel and Enterprise. In 2004 when Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb held a press conference in a coffee shop (nice place, by the way) literally on the Leominster-Fitchburg border, it was covered by the Gardner News, the Telegram, and a local radio station.
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The Sentinel? Obviously not newsworthy. The next day they ran a story about a chicken farm in Westminster on the front page.
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Since I had organized the press conference, I phoned the editor before we started just to make sure a reporter wasn’t lost or running late. At first I got a brush off about some other events in town, a fire, etc. Then I pushed saying his competitors were all there. He got, should I say, huffy, and offered what was basically a veiled threat. I don’t remember his exact words, but the gist of the whole thing was don’t get me made or see much more coverage you get for your events in this paper.
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Before the Lowell Sun bought the paper it used to be a fairly decent local town daily. Now most of it is AP and other wire service filler – even the arts and entertainment section which used to be filled with nice features and reviews of local concerts, plays, and the work of local musicians. Now it is AP material on Lindsay Lohan.
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It has however opened the door for the FREE weekly Leominster Champion (http://www.leominste…) which has at least put the local feature stories back in the news, if not some substantive news coverage and opinion, unless you count a religion column where a number of local clergy share a column on a rotating basis. Half of them push various forms of fundamentalist Christianity and display their ignorance of other religions as well as modern biblical scholarship. Thank God, if you will, for the local rabbi and UU minister.
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Needless to say, I am a daily reader of Blue Mass Group and not of the Sentinel.
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St. K.
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Was there anything INACCURATE in the story?
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BTW – the ONLY shelter for battered women in 15 town Barnstable County, Independence House, receives under $100,000 per year in state funding. So some of us view this newly crated position and its price tag differently than you might in Bosotn.
in a TOTALLY ONE PARTY STATE it’s wonderful that we have a Barbara Anderson to “howl” at each new blatant democrat abuse of the taxpayers and citizens. I completely agree with Barbara’s assessment that we are just seeing the beginning of “Cadillac” Deval’s pomposity and self indulgence that undoubtably will bring him to be known as the worst Governor in the State’s history even eclipsing the incredible liberal buffoon , Michael “tank helment” Dukakis.