WHEN IT COMES to the state of the news industry, the news has not been good. Over a span of less than two decades, a quarter of the country’s newspapers have folded. That translates to tens of thousands of reporters laid off – and it means far less coverage of communities across the country. Less […]
Media
Posted inCriminal Justice
Did Patriots cornerback Jack Jones get off easy in gun case?
WITH THE OFF-FIELD behavior of professional athletes an increasing focus of concern, getting busted trying to bring two loaded guns through security at Logan Airport certainly was not exactly a good look for a guy about to start his second season with the New England Patriots. And to any armchair jurist it seemed an open-and-shut […]
Posted inOpinion
Maybe the Globe should take a look at itself
“IT’S BEEN YEARS since legislative democracy truly flourished at the State House,” the Boston Globe editorial board sighed in exasperation a few weeks ago. For more than a decade, Globe editorials have been denouncing the Legislature’s m.o., which was fashioned by Democratic supermajorities in both House and Senate: consolidate power within a small group of […]
Posted inMedia, Transportation
3 agencies, including MBTA, will pay Sumner mitigation costs
THE STATE HIGHWAY administrator said the traffic mitigation costs associated with the repairs of the Sumner Tunnel will be borne by the Department of Transportation, the MBTA, and the Massachusetts Port Authority. Jonathan Gulliver, the administrator, said it hasn’t been decided yet how the costs will be split among the three agencies. Chanda Smart, a […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Media
Rollins wheeled and dealed with the Globe, Herald
SIPPING CHABLIS WITH Jill Biden, it turns out, was the least of Rachael Rollins’s transgressions. Ever since reports last summer that Rollins attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at an Andover home where the first lady was the headline guest, the Massachusetts US attorney has been under scrutiny for possible violation of the Hatch Act, […]
Posted inArts and Culture
The promise and pitfalls of relying on artificial intelligence
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS changing the way we think about authorship, art, and white collar work. It may be changing how we think, full stop. As artificial intelligence, or machine learning, becomes more integrated into people’s everyday lives, it runs the risk of “replacing moral judgments, or by replacing practical judgments, or replacing everyday judgments,” Nir […]
Posted inMedia
Baron rises to the defense of objectivity in journalism
MARTY BARON, the former editor of the Washington Post and Boston Globe, came to Brandeis University last week and threw down the gauntlet to those who think objectivity in news coverage is an outmoded concept. “I find myself in a diminishing minority and yet I have no reservations about being a dissenter,” Baron said in […]
Posted inMedia
New reporter at CommonWealth
ATTENTIVE READERS may have noticed a new byline in CommonWealth over the last month. Jennifer Smith has joined the magazine as a staff reporter, replacing Shira Schoenberg, who left CommonWealth after three years to join the Boston Globe editorial page. Smith has covered Massachusetts for a variety of publications over the past decade, coming to […]
Posted inArts and Culture
In end of era, Bay State Banner sold
BIG NEWS FROM the world of local news in Boston: After almost 60 years at the helm, Mel Miller has decided it’s time for a changing of the guard at the Bay State Banner, the venerable weekly focused on the city’s Black community that he has owned since its founding in 1965. The 88-year-old publisher […]
Posted inPolitics
Citing increasingly toxic climate, Michelle Wu turns away from Twitter
MICHELLE WU IS hitting the brakes on the wutrain. Wu, who has made regular Twitter engagement on her @wutrain account a hallmark of her millennial mayoralty and political brand, said the platform has become an increasingly difficult place to share information and have civil dialogue over important issues. “I’ve experienced this platform becoming more and […]