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In media mess: New paper couldn't have chosen a different name?
By adamg on Mon, 04/25/2016 - 7:51am
The Bay State Banner, which serves Boston's black community, is blasting the new Boston Guardian for using a name with historic significance for Boston-area blacks:
Is our history so unimportant that they would take this name to serve Back Bay residents?? Melvin Miller didn't even use the name when he founded the Banner as the legacy of the Guardian. We have a front page of the Guardian framed on the wall of our office. This is beyond disrespectful.
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Comments
Maybe they should have used Boston Current instead?
or Boston Direct Current? Pronounced the same as the paper they used to publish.
OMFG
Some people need to get a life.
Especially people with zero
Especially people with zero concept of history who mouth off in websites' comment sections.
zero concept of history
i have a pretty good concept of history and i think that using a rather mundane english word that is commonly used in news paper titles two generations after somebody of a different color last used it for the same thing is fine
i dont think its especially helpful to anybody to say "GUARDIAN? THATS OUR WORD" given the fact that its also a very important word to the paper industry as a whole- going back at minimum 200 years. the guardian's UK site is the 5th largest online newspaper presence today.
sometimes words can mean different things to different people, it is sad that really, in this case the people that care about this probably have more in common than they do different. but no, i do not think any race gets to claim appropriation or disrespect for somebody else using an industry term. i see it as a way of driving people apart.
i guess i could/should get really upset at applebees interpretation of latin classic 'dulce de leche' because frankly, it's far more relevant, impacts far more people, and is absolutely heinous.
edit: that being said, it's perfectly understandable and reasonable for somebody to care about this, and to mourn the absence of their newspaper. i even understand ire being directed towards the new paper, but that doesn't make it right.
I have a concept of history
I know what the Guardian was (it wasn't called the Boston Guardian, by the way) and who William Monroe Trotter was, but I am willing to bet most Black Bostonians are barely familiar with either, so why the expectation that publishers of the Back Bay's newspaper would research the history of Boston newspaper names before naming this paper?
If we made every Transcript, Gazette, Post, Record, News Letter, and Atlas off limits, what would we have for names?
eh
im no advocate for the papers but its unreal for people expect there to be a journal of all the times somebody has used a name for a paper across the globe, in this post print era
herald
E: ah dang, reused one you did. tried to keep it all original.
oh well, fits in with the theme of what we're talking about hahaha
Not across the Globe. One
Not across the Globe. One neighborhood over.
This seems like an honest mistake, but maybe they should have done a little more homework when they picked the name.
Apparently Boston's African
Apparently Boston's African-American community didn't care much for the Boston Guardian - if they did, it might be still publishing. 60 years have gone by and I think its okay for someone else to use the name.
What's in a name
Well, why didn't BSB name itself Boston Guardian to start with, and continue the tradition of that name being associated with newspaper focusing on the black community?
dang,i didnt know it wasnt ok for white people to say the g word
dang,i didnt know it wasnt ok for white people to say the g word
Seriously
I agree 1,000 %
This race nonsense is fucking petty. Damn man let it go! I get so sick and tired of blacks pulling the race card even when it isnt fucking necessary. If youre mad about the name be mad about the name. But dont fucking make it about color because a black person once used the name. So the fuck what? You know how many terms there are out there in the world that was once ORIGINAL and now has been adopted changed and altered through out time? Focus on the big shit this paper shit is petty. Oh and im black too before the bigotry begins. I could give a fuck less. Im more concerned about paying bills and going to school for better employment than I am some name people once used and now are changing. Like omg are you registered to vote? Fuck the Banner pay attention to the upcoming elections! Stop fighting over meaningless shit. You act like you get a percentage from the banner. Unless youre getting paid to give a goddamn I suggest you stop being so damn petty. Damn!
Change the name of The
Change the name of The Guardian to something else, though I can't imagine the name was chosen based on the one from the early 1900's. It's of course understandable that the people at Bay State Banner would raise this valid point, but why the immediate rage? I would think engaging in a dialogue with the people at The Guardian would have been their first action.
Johnny come latelies
Ask any Mancunian
More details from the Banner
They could have picked another name.
There's this thing called "Google"
If I was starting a new business, whether it was a newspaper or a company selling dog biscuits, I would Google the name of my new company before I spent any money to have letterhead printed.
Yes you CAN re-use an old name, but a quick search will tell you whether that is a good idea or one so fraught with danger that it's best to go a different way.
The People Running The Paper Saw No Value In Having A Website
( so, they've probably never even heard of Google )
But they've heard of Twitter
But they've heard of Twitter
(As did the Boston Courant)