With such limited space on the front page of the Boston Globe, you're always faced with tough decisions, such as: "Do we play up the hero Boston firefighter who once again saved a child or do we give the space to a month-old story about some rich guy who donated a ton of money to some town out near Lunenburg to build a library? And what about that story about John Kerry going to some environmental conference next month?"
And in the end you go with the rich guy in the boonies and John Kerry.
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well, the FF got front page on the site
By Brett
Fri, 11/13/2009 - 12:15pm
Which these days might have been more eyeballs...
I'm with you on the Kerry
By Cynic
Fri, 11/13/2009 - 1:36pm
I'm with you on the Kerry story, which had no proximate news peg, and could easily have been held or bounced inside the paper.
But I gotta say, I think you're dead wrong about the Townsend story, Adam. (And for me to praise anything written by Sara Schweitzer is a minor event.) It deserved the prominence it received for three distinct reasons. The first is that the story is heartwarming and resonant - putting it above the fold sells papers and attracts readers. It's the third-most e-mailed off the website in the past day. One job of the front-page editor is to put stories there that people actually want to read. The second is that it's newsworthy. This sort of thing is extremely unusual in this day and age. It happened in Cambridge more than a hundred years ago, when a wealthy businessman who had grown up there donated the City Hall, high school, and library. It happened in Ames at roughly the same time. But I'm hard-pressed to think of examples from the past few decades. Most people who get rich direct their philanthropy to prominent and wealthy institutions. For a guy like Stone to spend $20m improving the quality of life for people in his own town and providing for its future, instead of giving it to MGH or Harvard, is huge news. And the last reason is that it serves a vital public interest. Publicizing Stone's largesse is likely to encourage others to do the same. Getting businessmen to invest - really, truly invest - in their local communities is very difficult in a day and age of global business. Local businesses sometimes do this, but Stone's is national in scope. Featuring good acts - by firefighters or by businessmen - is important.
That said, there should have been room for both stories. Bounce Kerry off the front page, or hold the story for Saturday's paper, and the problem is solved. There's no excuse for not featuring an incredibly compelling story of heroism and courage, with a stronger local angle. But I think there was a lot more to the Townsend story than the lifestyles of the rich and famous - for once, Schweitzer found herself a worthwhile subject.
Oh, it's a good story
By adamg
Fri, 11/13/2009 - 1:44pm
But it's hardly breaking news. It could have waited a day to get the Boston story on the front. Or, like you said, hold the Kerry story.
and libraries should be a hot topic right now...
By bandit
Fri, 11/13/2009 - 4:05pm
... one of the governor's plans to help the state budget, which he mentioned in a press conference, is to close the state library. you can read more about it on their blog.
at a time when even the governor is not showing enough support for libraries in our state, it's nice to see somebody in the public who still understands why these are important institutions.
It's not surprising at all.
By anon
Fri, 11/13/2009 - 1:39pm
It's not surprising at all. By telling the story of the firefighter's past and present actions, it would violate their agreement with the Menino administration of destroying the morale, effectiveness and independence of the Boston Fire Department.
Don't think for a second that Donovan Slack is not on the job of finding out about what his neighbors think of him, criminal record, etc. I can just see her line of questioning with his third grade teacher, "so Sister, after he pulled little Susie's ponytail, did you punish him and do you think he is truly rehabilitated?"
i gotta stick up for beth daley
By Harris
Sat, 11/14/2009 - 2:22pm
Nobody likes griping about John Kerry and/or the Globe more than yours truly. And I'm aware most people don't give a crap about international climate treaty talks. But calling Copenhagen "some environmental conference" is a bit like calling the World Series a baseball game. It's kind of a big deal.
Atrocious headline, though.