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Oh, for Christ's sake, Channel 4, go investigate something important
By adamg on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 8:50am
Like, I dunno, state senators taking bribes or state troopers abusing gas cards. Instead, the once mighty I-Team is reduced to investigating what members of the MBTA board of directors have for lunch once a month:
We saw multiple chafing dishes being set out, all with different hot entrees. There were salads and fruit plates, all being enjoyed by a large group of people.
Hey, I'm all for rooting out waste and corruption in state government. But instead of examining why the T is really billions of dollars in debt, Channel 4 tells us about sauteed chicken.
Free tagging:
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Comments
that's why governmental transparency is so important
Instead of Ch. 4 digging for literal crumbs, we need state government to be transparent, so that ALL of us can get at the facts of what they spend and how. This is what I said about it yesterday on Federal News Radio...
Chicken... pasta... salad...
Chicken... pasta... salad... fruit! Im so angry, ANGRY I tell you that they have these lavish lunches. I can see through this window as they line up one by one and serve themselves from those holding pans. The sheer elegence of it has me riled up!!!
Its a monthly meeting, presumably its happening around lunch of dinner time, so a meal is provided. Many places offer lunch to employees when there is a large meeting around a meal time, and even many school groups in college would have lunch served during small events. I didnt hear anything even remotely expensive listed.
Everyone always talks about how these agencies should act more like businesses and when they do people get riled up. In a business environment a lunch would be provided for any meeting like this, and in fact a board of directors meeting for such a big organization would probaly illicit much more expensive food then what we see in this video. So I agree with Adam 4news needs to get a life and stop wasting their money on covering this monthly lunch.
Common-place practice
I work for a contract foodservice company and have catered many different Board meetings at a number of different companies in the Boston area. Whether or not the MBTA should be spending money on catered lunches, it is a common practice and if you think about the fact that the money, especially if catered by a local catering company, is putting money into the economy on some level it doesn't quite seem so heinous.
Something more sinister here than boiled chicken
You are all clearly ignoring the teasers that WBZ ran over the weekend. Did you not even notice the ominous music overlaid on the knee high camera angles roving the halls of the offices? Are you intentionally feigning ignorance of the witty title as it zoomed onto the screen while snapping into place at the beginning of the piece?! All of the inference is there that there's far more at work here than a work lunch! All you have to do is connect the dots and let your imagination run wild!! Why do you refuse to let your imagination run wild!? Do you hate America?!?
PS - I didn't see the actual exposé.
I love it when the news
I love it when the news attempts to make a huge scandal out of chicken salad.
WBZ did the Trooper-gas card
WBZ did the Trooper-gas card story 2 months ago:
http://wbztv.com/local/state.trooper.gas.2.820933....
Good point
And Channel 4 does a generally good job breaking news online, as well. I just don't think a monthly lunch rises to the "OUTRAGE!" level, unless the I-Team can prove the directors are eating rhinoceros meat or the meal is followed by a coke-fueled orgy on a private Red Line car or something.
Or come to the Orange Line, no private car needed
or the meal is followed by a coke-fueled orgy on a private Red Line car or something.
Who needs a private car? C'mon down to the Orange line. I was headed home last weeked and my bike headlight was on when I took the bike down the stairs at Chinatown. The beam crossed over a group of three guys huddled together closely in a corner of the stairwell, and they turned and glared up at me, hands shooting into pockets. A little teeny clear plastic baggie dropped on the floor.
I told the "station attendant" and she just shrugged. See something, say something, MBTA does nothing.
See something? Say something
You should have sent your anonymous crime tip to TIPS
(Aside: using your cell to send a txt msg is obviously anonymous... rofl)
Chinatown station is a drug market
This is blatantly obvious to anyone who uses it on a regular basis. The T does nothing.
Hell, the dealers don't even try to hide it from me anymore. Though I would appreciate it if they'd get out of my way and stop blocking the stairs.
WBZ I-team Report- defended
I certainly understand that this free lunch can be viewed as small potatoes. (Pun anyone?) But here's my take. Thanks.
http://pod08.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag...
This was the first time I
This was the first time I was ever quoted using my screename on a news platform (chicken salad) Ill be sure to clip that and add it to my press clippings.
I do have to ask if your station ever has meetings that were catered? While I have never worked in the news sector I have worked in sectors related to it and have had catered lunches before. It is a business environment, even non profits have been known to cater official lunches. I just feel that this ranks up there with State House Gives Employees Free Water! and Mayor Gets Free Parking Spot!.
Do your tax dollars pay for
Do your tax dollars pay for my lunch if CBS were nice enough to provide one? That's the difference. Again... it's symbolic of "let's cut the muscle" but not the perks.
Gotta fly commercial is almost over.
To each his own I guess. I
To each his own I guess. I just feel that this wasnt the most sensible stance to make. I am all for you guys when you go after real waste and real corruption but sometimes when I see pieces like this I think that your being melodramatic.
I enjoyed you on WFXT and havent seen you on WBZ yet. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you find something jucier then Chicken Salad next time around.
Any other exciting tips?
Tearing down their story is one thing, but I'd like to hear if anyone has any other "corruption" oriented tips that the I-Team could bite onto and check out?
I mean, maybe this was just be most harmful thing out there? It still fits the profile, and I'm reluctant to criticize, since I can't think of any other viable alternatives.
If theres nothing worth
If theres nothing worth checking out they shouldnt do it.
Get real
My company bought me lunch today. We're not swimming in cash.
We had a morning meeting that was going so well that it ran hours later than expected until 1PM and the majority of us were in a second meeting that started at 1PM not giving us any chance to get away for lunch. The company ordered pizza for everyone in the meeting.
If we knew that we'd have worked straight through the lunch break, then I imagine we would have planned something a little better (but the same price) as pizza. Maybe chicken parm on linguini. There was a salad too.
Get real. We actually got *more* done because we stayed in house and worked/discussed topics through lunch than to break off and head in 16 different directions while waiting for everyone to return an hour later. The MBTA is hardly the first or last to use an organized meal to keep people in-house. Also, "lavish"...gimme a break. Name the caterer..why do I have a feeling it'll be Aramark or something.
Time is Money
The operative term here is "Working Lunch".
If a lunch that is catered and delivered(especially for people not familiar with the area) means that a dozen to a hundred or more people use less billable time and spend less overall for lunch, what is the problem exactly? Where I work, we do this when we have big meetings for these reasons - not to mention the things that get bandied about while people eat.
Catered lunches can be quite reasonably priced due to economies of scale when compared to even a modest or minimal lunch cost downtown.
Most reasonable lunch option near MBTA HQ?
PF Chang's? Come on, Wade, you put out a little mob hit journalism and we called you on it. Admit it.
Adamg: Is it really
Adamg: Is it really necessary to say "Christ's sake" in your headline? Believe it or not, this is pretty offensive to a large group of people. Now, I know you are immediately rolling your eyes and thinking "Right-wing Christian frump", but I am not that. But, I AM offended.
I am offended by your offense
"pretty offensive to a large group of people"?
O rly?. Also, if you've got a problem with the phrase, take it up with Charles Dickens, who used it repeatedly in his works.
PS:The fun quotient here has skyrocketed now that anon posting is back :)
Ooh, Channel 4's dusting off a spot on the mantel for that Emmy
Yes, the I-Team gets results! One state senator and some fiscal watchdog guy think the T should stop with the hot lunches.
Of course, both of the people Joe Shortsleeve quotes also say the T has far bigger problems that need to be addressed, and Shortsleeve grudgingly acknowledges that "these catering costs are relatively small compared to the rest of the MBTA's budget," but I smell local news Emmy for this one.
And never mind that "relatively small" should really be translated as "minuscule" or maybe even "so small you need an electron microscope to see it" given that the T's annual budget is around $1.5 BILLION dollars.
T waste
I saw them spray-painting giant wooden ramps brown, one on each side of the tracks, at Longwood GreenD stop yesterday.
I have no fugging clue what they are for, unless its to allow the disabled to drive up into an old-styled Green trolley car, but I thought they had those metal hand-crank lifts for that like in Park Street? And what about the horizontal gap between the doors and the elevated floor in the trolley car, since the stairs lead inward? It's unclear to me that these will be useful, but they're about 50' long and made of good solid wood, so I'm sure they cost about $2,000 - $5,000 each with parts and labor... maybe we could sic the I-Team on 'em?
I wonder how many millions are wasted on any given station construction project?
And now they got a T employee standing at the platform telling everyone to please enter the front of the train... well, guy, can I give you an unqualified "Fuck you" ? Because when there are 8 people in front of the white line, and every door is squeezing with people, I'm going to board wherever I want.
Sorry for the cussin'