Here’s something they don’t tell you in journalism school: The best way to get a story tip is also the easiest—someone accidentally emails you something that was meant for someone else.
Today, the Boston Herald newspaper published a cartoon that depicts a man showering in Barack Obama's bathroom. It's a commentary about the Secret Service's recent history of putting Barack Obama and his family in harm's way. It also contains a completely unnecessary and racist joke about watermelons.
We were told Ted Kennedy, who's battling advanced brain cancer, had mere weeks to live. We were told there'd be a macabre video salute to the man in lieu of an actual appearance in Denver. So when he actually showed up on stage at the DNC to deliver a genuinely rousing speech, well, it was an emotional moment. So emotional that the major tabloids of both New York and Boston could not come up with original headlines. The Post raves!
So, what's happening in Boston today? An outpouring of grief from the Boston Herald! The paper runs what may be the biggest correction of all time, size-wise: a front page splash apologizing to the New England Patriots for alleging that the team had videotaped an opponent's practice session. The original story ran February 2—the day before the Super Bowl, which the Patriots lost. Since the team obviously suffered morale failure from this traitorous blow by their hometown rag, this was really the least the Herald could do. (News of the apocalypse, P. 24). Click through for a larger picture.
Three months as a hostage in Iraq may have earned Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll a Harvard fellowship, but it can't help her escape the disdain of Boston Herald gossip columnists Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa. Indignant at Carroll's refusal to do an interview when accosted in a bar by a Fox assignment editor, Fee and Raposa note that despite Carroll's "pedestrian" education, her new gig at Harvard has made "one rather full of oneself." Probably didn't help that Carroll declined to comment further for the Herald, but really — how long is she going to ride that taken-hostage train, anyway? Note that this is the top gossip item in the Fee-Raposa column. New Yorkers, thank your lucky starlets.
You might mistake the duo at right for a mild-mannered pair headlining an NPR telethon; that would be the last mistake you ever made. The two are in fact Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa — the "Gals" — twin terrors of Boston's gossip scene and lead reporters on the Boston Herald's Inside Track column. A humbugging profile of Fee and Raposa in Boston magazine is amusing on several points, such as how even those who fear them are quick to note that at least things aren't as bad as in New York:
