You are here: Home / Morning Links / Curran, CSNNE Fire Shot at Globe Business Coverage of Red Sox, Patriots

Curran, CSNNE Fire Shot at Globe Business Coverage of Red Sox, Patriots

March 2, 2012 By

Longtime readers of BSMW had heard me complain many times about what I perceive to be uneven coverage of the Red Sox and Patriots in the pages of the Boston Globe.

According to Tom E Curran of CSNNE.com, that disparity extends to business coverage of the two franchises as well.

Business rules different for Red Sox, Patriots

Curran has an issue with how the Globe has covered concerns about business deals involving each team. You may recall that when the Patriots were eying stimulus funds to build a pedestrian bridge across Route one at Gillette Stadium, concerns were raised and the Globe wrote an entire column on the topic, complete with a sarcastic billionaire reference to Robert Kraft, and placed it prominently in the news section.

The Globe had previously reported on the Red Sox sweetheart-deal lease of the streets around Fenway, which has made them upwards of $45 million dollars. Concerns have arisen about the benefits of the arrangement to the city, and a city councilor has called for a hearing on the matter. The Globe’s coverage of this consisted of one paragraph buried in the business section yesterday.

Elsewhere in media coverage today:

Francona needs critical eye – Chad Finn hopes that Terry Francona doesn’t turn into Jon Gruden.

Media Roundup: Bill Simmons, From Digital Cities To The White House – My SB Nation Boston media column looks at Bill Simmons’ 15-year journey from tending bar to interviewing the President at the White House.

Filed Under: Morning Links
  • classless

    Pfff yeah…not biased coverage at all with the globe.globes

  • Angry Old Bastard

    The bell tolls for the globe

  • HighWireNickEsasky

    While i do think the Red Sox generally get more favorable coverage from the Globe that the Pats do, this is not a good example since it was a Globe investigative report that unearthed the sweetheart lease deal in the first place. In fact, on Feb 23 the Globe ran a full story on the state Inspector General’s report that said the city is dramatically undercharging the Sox. The City Council jumping on the story really isn’t big news since Menino controls the BRA anyway. They could have played it up bigger, sure, especially since they broke the story in the first place. But to say that the Globe is ignoring story is just plain wrong.

    Feb 23 piece:

    http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/02/24/inspector-general-calls-for-red-sox-pay-more-for-use-public-streets/zx9oAewS9ZGpDfMBdDAI1M/story.html

  • Ben

    Lots of reasons to rip on the Globe but this isn’t one of them. They uncovered the Sox story. Because a city councilor calling for an examination got buried isn’t notable because city councilors in Boston are figureheads who are pretty much there to handle constituent services. And Pats and Sox situations are not analogous. Unlike the Pats money grab which was complete BS vis a vis job generation, no one knew what those streets would be worth to the Sox when that deal was cut. It appeared to be found money for the city.

  • bsmfan
    • Tony

      I’ll be watching Goodell’s handling of this case very, very closely. Florio is usually a Belichick basher but even he, finally, somewhat acknowledges that Goodell’s overpunishment of Spygate was more about “setting an example” for the rest of the NFL than it was for violating such a significant rule (which many other teams were violating, too). In this New Orleans case, you’ve got a team that was not only violating a “bounty” rule (which, like the anti-videotaping rule, I had no idea actually existed before Goodell made a big deal out of it)–but a team that was violating the rule in an era when the commissioner has been levying huge fines and suspensions for hits that “cross the line” during NFL games. If the punishment for this isn’t as severe, or more severe than those handed down for Spygate, then Goodell loses what little is left of his credibility with NFL fans (remember, it’s the owners who love this guy, probably for this business acumen–fans in most NFL cities can’t stand him because his fines and suspensions for hits and off-field behavior have affected most teams by now; his recent re-election was jeered on most NFL fan message boards).

      • bsmfan

        Based on what I’ve heard, this is going to put Spygate in the rear-view mirror. Think right now about the initiative to stop the hits but also the players who are engaged in a lawsuit here. Doug Ferrar(sp) from Yahoo’s NFL blog thinks Williams should get a lifetime ban because it’s now come out that he not only ran this with the Saints after they were told to stop and ignored the order from their owner, but also the Redskins and now as headcoach for the Bills. I’ve got to wonder what is going to happen.

        Thankfully, due to the trade, our #27 pick is completely safe. The league cannot touch this but I think the fines/lost 1st rounder and such are the least of their worries.

        I forget who said it but one of the big nfl insider/writers said that much more is going to come out on this and it had to do with where the funds came from for the slush fund.

  • bsmfan

    Was it the Globe or Herald that did an article on non-licensed vendors? I recall it was sometime last year in the beginning of the baseball season.

  • bsmfan

    Chad Finn also speculates, as was brought up on Bruce’s previous post, that Dale Arnold is most likely sticking with WEEI because the Mutt/Merloni program has strugled and he would be a clear “replacement” if they changed the 10-2 slot up. (A few here said the same.)

    His article also summed up the Twellman on ESPN very well:

    “Encouraging debut by Taylor Twellman as ESPN’s primary soccer analyst during the United States’s 1-0 win over Italy in a friendly Wednesday. Twellman, the former Revolution star who will serve as analyst on the network’s MLS coverage beginning this month, let the game breathe and spoke only when he had insight to contribute, impressive for a relative newcomer who tended to be too enthusiastic during past co-hosting gigs on Comcast SportsNet New England’s “Sports Tonight.’’

    Spot-on.

  • Bob Nelson

    By the way, the Fitchburg paper had a front page story saying WPKZ 1280/105.3 will be carrying the Yankees this year, not the Red Sox. 1280 had the Sox for 45 years (originally
    WEIM). Oh, reason?

    Entercom would not offer them a contract.
    Supposedly 93.7 should cover the area…and as WPKZ points out they’ll have 19 regular
    season games featuring the Sox –when they play the Yanks. Podcast explaining the
    move: http://wpkz.net/pages/?p=1087

    • bsmfan

      I had heard about that somewhere else. Last year, I think I posted this link to the site but it’s a good read about Sox/Yankees coverage up here:

      http://bostonography.com/2011/more-on-radio-maps/

      Great read regardless of your fandom.

      • Bob Nelson

        Thanks–that was out before WEEI branched out to 93.7 of course! It shows the FM on Cape Ann (104.9) but not the Peabody-based 93.7 signal

  • Chris

    The seething rage inside The Globe’s Soviet-styled HQ is palpable. The have utter disdain for people ‘Not Like Them.’

  • latetodinner

    There are few Football reporters I dislike more Chris Gasper. Today he proved to me again why I can’t stand him. At 8:15 Saturday morning the Bertrand and Gasper show was discussing “bountygate”. Specifically they were discussing the idea that Commissioner Goddell should or should not punish NO worse than the Pats were for “spygate”. Gasper said “I don’t see why its not like NO cheated like the Pats”. He then went on to argue that the Pats cheated while all NO did was have blatant disrespect for other players and maybe circumvent the salary cap. I am not sure there is enough bandwidth to explain why his position is idiotic. But what is more appalling to me is that he made these comments without any hesitation…as if his blind hatred and bias against the Patriots is matter of fact. The idea that a National football writer actually equates the rewarding of deliberate injuries with video taping hand signals is baffling. Its bad enough that honor has been cast aside in the NFL, the fact that those charged with reporting on it don’t have any either, points to much bigger problems with the integrity of the game and its media watchdogs.

    • bsmfan

      Wow, really? I can recall every single writer, which so many now have chimed in due to the teams this has potentially affected, bring up that this needs to be worse than Spygate. On the “Saturday roundup” — kinda like what Bruce does — on ProFootballTalk, one of the writers included 3 links to local teams who played the saints.

      The one missing was Seattle.

      I guess the Saints forgot to put a bounty on Marshawn Lynch’s head in 2010. (laughter)

      I think he missed Goodell’s initiative to stop this and the lawsuit that the few writers covering it seriously think the league will wind up not only settling with a large cash settlement but setting up a future fund from revenues. I’m still split on this because of the personal responsibility part but, given the revenues the league makes, and how they pay previous players something like a 1-10k? a year now, you’d hope the league would do the right thing.

      “Pats cheated while all NO did was have blatant disrespect for other players and maybe circumvent the salary cap.” He also missed the disregard for a direct order from an owner, coach looking the other way, and the “bounty rule”. (Note: maybe he did cover it as I didn’t hear the segment).

      Has anyone listened into NO sportstalk? Thus far, after reading NOLA.com, I’ve not seen a writer defending this. It’s always interested hearing a local take on it.

      • latetodinner

        Gasper did say if Williams own money was involved then this became “a serious” issue because they circumvented the salary cap to pay unaccounted for bonuses. That was as close as he came to condemning NO. He kept saying…”this is bad and I do not want to mitigate the “intent to injure” part of this” but when a caller would mention this is worse than Spygate his stock response was “how so, NO did not cheat”. He had somehow made the illogical conclusion that disregarding a rule and trying to injure a player is not cheating, even though the hits were illegal and would take the player off the field, whereas videotaping hand signals 10 feet away from where it would be legal to do…is cheating.

        Gasper lack of understanding to me is breathtaking. His inability to see that paying players to deliberately injure opponents therefore directly affecting the OUTCOME of a game is significantly worse than building a library of hand signals in an attempt to gain a competitive edge in understanding an opponents trends. The fact that had the camera been placed 10 feet further back in the first row of the stands would have made the video taping legal seems lost on him.

        I go back to something I argued a few weeks before the SB. I do not understand why the Patriots organization does not put more pressure on 98.5 to clean up these messes. There really is no reason to put Gasper on the air. It is clear he cannot rationally talk about the Patriots and he has no expertise in any other sport. In some ways to me he is more dangerous than Ron Borges. At least with Borges he does not deny his bias. Gasper attempts to portray himself as a rational observer. If that is the case then he is by far and away the worst reporter there is covering the NFL. If he has the bias we all think he does then he should not be commenting on the Pats.

        • bsmfan

          Actually, kinda funny you bring up Gasper. I used to think him and Israel Guiterez(sp)? were the same. If you did not know either well, you might as well. Beyond the similarities in looks, I think the only similarity they share is their politics. Well, this morning on SportsReporters (ESPN), he leveled a similar claim that this was “not as bad as Spygate” because “Spygate is cheating and this is just a motivational thing.”

          Sorry, but if Brady got leveled by a Saint in this, we’d be livid. Any other fan/team would do the same if an injury was part of some motivational ploy.

          I know that the Pats/SportsHub thing is your schtick, and I’m not sure what can be done besides what Felger says. What Felger says is a flat out lie and gross misinterpretation of the rules. The other side being that would you really want Kraft/Patriots engaging in a Yawkee Way-style campaign with the media? I’m not sure I’d want that.

    • Tony

      I’ve been arguing on another board all weekend about how the media, national or otherwise, will treat this NO situation vis a vis how they treated–and continue to treat–Spygate. My argument has been that this will all be forgotten by the time the regular season starts and you’ll never hear another peep out of the media about it, ever again. Simply put, it doesn’t involve Belichick, who is simply hated by the media, and the Patriots. It involves a “feel-good story” team with a likable head coach who gives them access, and a team based in a city that’s a mid-sized media market at most. This story will fade, trust me. Meanwhile, I’m sure Greg Easterbrook and the rest of the toads at ESPN, as well as the Felgers of the world around here will continue to bring up Spygate until the day the football world stops turning.

  • bsmfan

    I’d also like to show the dichotomy between players and writers here. Since D+C decided to do their usual “I’m screaming right”, I wound up tuning into Mike+Mike. Mike Golic, the former player, is absolutely livid when writers are suggesting anything more than a minor fine. Not only that, but he was going off with what he could, given how PC both ESPN and Mike and Mike are, against all the writers suggesting Gregg Williams get a fine, let alone suspended.

    ESPN is doing a special today at 4PM on this (A roundtable Adam Schefter said) if anyone is interested. I assume this is also going to dominate sportstalk in any city that has a NFL team or market around it.

    The reports keep saying that RG is going to levy the biggest fine/suspension/etc ever and do it before the March owner meetings.

    • latetodinner

      I heard Mike Flynn another former player make a similar argument over the weekend. The thinking seems to be “the pool/bounties were a motivation tool and not a serious attempt to injure”…as such everyone does it so why punish for it.

      What the miss is the intent to injure part. If you want to have a pool for sacks, ints etc…great have at it. But when you introduce the deliberate intent to injure and then reward it you have crossed a line. You are saying, we will reward you for messing with another player’s livelihood. What I don’t hear anyone talking about is honor and sportsmanship. I do hear quasi legal arguments…Chris Gasper was trying that on…”well if they circumvented the salary cap then they are guilty of something”. Certain football players, some coaches, some parts of the media covering them and a segment of the public can’t grasp the fact that it is just a game, with rules, and that bending, twisting and contorting them in an attempt to gain an edge at the expense of an opposing player’s short and long term health is just wrong.

      • Tony

        OK, that’s interesting that former players are bringing up the “everyone does it so it’s no big deal” argument, given that MOST former players wouldn’t hear any of that when it was pointed out four-plus years ago by several former Super Bowl-winning coaches that stealing AND filming signals was a common practice in the NFL before Goodell decided that it had to be banned. Like I’ve said before, the double-standard that applies to media coverage of the Patriots vis a vis every other team in the NFL will show itself quite evidently as this situation unfolds.

        • bsmfan

          Well, DanPatrick.com, in his show, did d a daily poll. As of 10:10AM EST:

          Which is worse?
          Patriots’ Spygate 48.99%
          Saints’ bounties 51.01%

          It does not say how many “voted” but it has to be >10k given his viewership. I’m shocked it’s not at least 60% on the Saints there.

      • bsmfan

        Could you say the same with gambling in NBA circles and other professional sports? Players want to setup a little pool with a grand in the pot playing Spades or whatever card game. I’d say it is doubtful you’ll stop this completely. However, turn that pot into something 50k, a la Gilbert Arenas and the others in the Washington org, and it’s a whole other story.

%d bloggers like this: