On my way to a Boston trade show last April, I stopped for a visit at the Morrissey Boulevard complex of the Boston Globe. My visit was hosted by Richard Chacón, who was then the Globe Ombudsman. Richard toured me around the huge Globe complex and gave me some insight into how the newspaper comes together each day.
For 2 years I have authored the blog 'Squaring the Boston Globe' which is usually quite critical of the paper. Did Richard expect that, like Jonah in the belly of the whale, I would repent my past criticism after spending a just few hours at the Globe? Hardly.
He did believe, though, that having some insight into the Globe’s workings would make any criticism more informed. I hope he was right. So here is a first impression -- the points that stick in my mind after seeing the Globe in operation for the first time.
The Globe building has a typically grandiose 1960s corporate lobby full of granite, marble, and other signs of organizational pride. There is a huge stone map of New England on the rear wall and another wall has a huge fabric tapestry containing an image of the front page of the Globe from April 4, 1872. This may be the first paper since the continuous production of the Globe or have some other historic significance, I’m not sure.
I spent some time reading the 1872 paper, and much of the front page is devoted to covering the content of the Sunday sermons that were delivered in various Boston churches the day before. How times do change.
A Chance Meeting
While I was waiting in the lobby to meet Richard, I introduced myself to one Globe reporter who was there for a minute. When he found out I was a blogger, he asked me if my blog was one of the “media bias blogs.” I told him it was, and he said that in his opinion “a lot of what may appear as media bias is really a result of laziness, incompetence, or organizational stupidity.”
He related an example of one story that had been growing in importance for about a week. It was not covered by the Globe for several days because the key reporter on that beat was off on vacation and so the Globe’s antenna was impaired.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
Perhaps the Globe should use red ink ( pink?) for the Op Ed content. Either of these color choices would be fitting
sure thing....as long as they print jacoby using invisible ink.
2 - Phillip Winn
This is a really fascinating look behind the scenes. Thanks!
3 - Queer Texan
It was interesting that a self-described critic of the Globe could make such an objective review about how the Globe is put together. Well done. It should be an "eye-opener" for many other critics of the so-called "liberal-media" who envision cigar-chomping editors cackling around a round-table tossing possible "spins" on the news. Fire on 18th and Columbus? Was that news, or what it liberal bias? Forbes' own review shows how impossible that is.
Of course, opinion creeps in near the end with the talk of liberal arrogance and smugness in reporting the news and opinion. One might have a point, I guess, if they could point at their newspapers, cable news anchors, radio talk show hosts and the like who are decidedly absent those characteristics. Fox News? Limbaugh? Malken? O'Reilly? Are these examples?