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Apparent Horizon

NO MOONSHOT REQUIRED

It’s hardly a secret that I’m no fan of Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung’s writing on matters political and economic. Which clearly reflects her belief that bringing big corporations to Boston and shovelling public money at them is the best way to improve the city’s fortunes. And she’s none too picky about what corporations she supports either. Despite recently criticizing Wayfair’s $200,000 sale to a government contractor doing business with baby concentration camps near the Mexican border, she has had no difficulty at all shamelessly flacking for companies like General Electric and Amazon. Both of which, as I’ve written on numerous occasions, have done far worse things to the people of the Bay State and the world than Wayfair has done to date.

SECOND HEARING ON MA JOURNALISM COMMISSION BILL A SUCCESS

  Over 80 journalists, journalism students, and professors answer DigBoston’s call to turn out   Amazingly, I’m on my first real vacation in four years this week. But I think it’s important to pen a truncated version of my usual column to thank the 80 plus people (about half of whom were journalism students… yay!) […]

GIVE MA JOURNALISM COMMISSION SEATS TO WORKING JOURNALISTS

This week, I joined fellow journalists, journalism educators, and members of the public at large in testifying on a bill to form a Mass journalism commission that is currently before the state legislature. In view of the potential importance of the initiative, my column this week is simply the text of my testimony. For more […]

THE RIGHT QUESTION FOR THE BROAD LEFT

  On July 5, start asking the Democrats, “What policies will help working families?”   The patriotic season is upon us. With it comes the arrival of the 2020 presidential race—far too early, in my estimation. Which in turn tends to generate conservative political ripples all the way down to the local level in the […]

SECOND HEARING CALLED ON MA JOURNALISM COMMISSION BILL

  After some fast action by your pals at DigBoston and BINJ   Almost immediately after rising on Monday, I knew that I wasn’t going to have a normal start to my week. Production on DigBoston commences over the weekend for my colleagues and me, and concludes early Wednesday morning when each issue goes to […]

HOW TO FIND NEWS YOU CAN TRUST

  Some thoughts from a working journalist   A few days ago I was at a local hospital for a routine test, and I got to talking to the tech administering it. She asked what I did. I said that I’m a journalist. And her reaction was very much of this era. She started talking […]

DOUBLE HAPPINESS: FOUR YEARS OF BINJ, TWO YEARS OF DIGBOSTON

  Celebrating the simultaneous anniversaries of the Hub’s most independent news outlets   As I’ve written on numerous occasions, Chris Faraone, John Loftus, and I run two very different enterprises simultaneously: an independent alternative weekly newspaper, DigBoston; and an incubator dedicated to producing longform investigative reporting, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ). We’re experimenting […]

GATEHOUSE STRIKES AGAIN: WORCESTER MAGAZINE ON THE ROPES

  Time for journalists and readers to fight back against the destruction of American newspapers   Over the holiday weekend, my wife and I had occasion to take the commuter rail out to Dedham to a family gathering in memory of loved ones who have left us. As we walked the mile to my cousin’s […]

CAMBRIDGE COUNCILORS CAN STOP UNDEMOCRATIC COURTHOUSE DEAL

Four votes against the proposed leasing of city parking spaces should do the trick

MORE DEMOCRACY NEEDED TO SURVIVE GLOBAL WARMING

  Or: Free the Wu Train   The hits just keep on coming from climate scientists—as they drop big global warming studies with increasing regularity. Fielding data and projections that look ever more depressing.   Most recently, a new report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services says that not […]