By the time you read this, the war between the MBTA and Boston Metro, the brand-new free daily non-newspaper for non-readers, could be all over. Or maybe not.

Metro, part of a Swedish media conglomerate that also publishes look-alike papers in Philadelphia, Toronto, and Europe, got off to a rough start even before its May 3 debut. On April 30, the MBTA ordered about 15 of the paper's 500 or so distribution boxes removed from its property. And according to managing director Russel Pergament, the harassment has continued, with Metro hawkers being singled out for removal from T stations. Upping the ante still further, Pergament says, " I think they were particularly hard on our African-American and Hispanic hawkers. "

Pergament, a long-time newspaper executive who founded the Tab weeklies back in the 1980s (they are now owned by Boston Herald publisher Pat Purcell), has been meeting with T officials, and says they've got until the end of the day on May 9 - after the Phoenix's deadline - to produce written standards that will apply to all papers. Otherwise, he says, he plans to file complaints with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the state attorney general's office, and the appropriate federal agencies.

But the T, rather than digging in its heels, appears ready to reach an accommodation. Press secretary Brian Pedro admits that the agency had gotten lax about policies regarding newspaper distribution on its properties, and that the arrival of Metro " has forced this to a head. "

A new policy that's now being drafted will treat all newspapers equally, Pedro says. Though he wouldn't commit to the Wednesday deadline, he did say, " We will have it done as soon as possible. " Pedro adds that Pergament's claim of racial discrimination will be investigated, commenting, " We take that kind of thing seriously. "

Metro already lacks what most of its sister papers have: an exclusive deal to distribute inside public-transportation facilities, a deal that is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit brought by other media in Philadelphia. But Pergament professes not to worry, saying he'd rather spend the money on street hawkers than give it to the T.

Nor does Pergament make any bones about Metro's target audience, saying the paper is designed to be a 20-minute read for people who simply don't read newspapers. The first few issues have consisted mainly of short, disconnected items from around the planet, although Tuesday's column by WLVI-TV (Channel 56) political reporter Jon Keller (who once worked for Pergament at the Tab) was both local and fresh.

Pergament promises far more local content for our city's Metro, including investigative pieces. Just so long as he doesn't drop the bizarre page-one animal briefs, which so far have included VICIOUS PIG KILLS ELDERLY FARMER, BABOON GOES BERSERK IN AIR, and FAMOUS GOOSE ATTACKS WOMAN.

As for how the newcomer will affect more-established dailies, that remains to be seen. Both the Globe and the Herald have dropped their price to 25 cents near T stations - a weirdly defensive response to what may prove to be little more than a minor annoyance. Metro clearly poses a greater threat to the Herald, which depends heavily on street sales in the city. But Philadelphia Weekly media critic Karen Abbott recently reported that, during the year since its debut, Philadelphia Metro has cost the Herald-like Philadelphia Daily News only about 2500 readers.

Pergament says he doesn't expect Metro to hurt either the Herald or the Globe. " For the majority of our readers who do not get a daily paper, " he says, " this is all they want. "

There he goes again

It looks as if Mike Barnicle, who lost his Boston Globe column two years ago amid a flurry of evidence that he was a serial plagiarist and fabricator, is up to his old tricks. A Web site with the charming name of Media Whores Online (MWO) reports that the first third of Barnicle's April 29 column in the New York Daily News was lifted - thematically, though not quite word for word - from a recent SBC cell-phone commercial that's in rotation on ESPN.

The scenario shared by SBC and Barnicle: two guys having a conversation in a locker room are overheard by a third guy, who's behind a row of lockers and thus can't see them. The first two appear to be talking about their genitalia and the relative size thereof, which leads a horrified Guy #3 to bolt. It turns out, though, that they're comparing cell phones (SBC) and golf clubs (Barnicle).

After looking up Barnicle's column and watching the commercial on the Web, it seems to me that MWO has enough for an indictment, if not necessarily a conviction. Which is hardly a surprise, given that multimedia threat Barnicle (his other employers are MSNBC, WTKK Radio, and WCVB-TV), during his quarter-century-long Globe career, faced credible accusations that he'd lifted material from Jimmy Cannon, Mike Royko (three times!), George Carlin, and A.J. Liebling. Indeed, MWO's main complaint with Barnicle isn't that he's stealing, but that he's slumming: " Oh, dear God, it's all so disappointing and sad. "

Check it out for yourself at www.mediawhoresonline.com.

Hot stuff

Former Boston Phoenix, Boston magazine, and Boston Herald writer Sean Flynn is very hot stuff right now, having won a coveted National Magazine Award last week for " The Perfect Fire, " his Esquire story on the horrific Worcester fire of December 1999. (Flynn is currently working on a book on the same subject.)

But is he, you know, hot? The New York Observer set out to answer that question last week, posting photos of Flynn and other National Magazine Award nominees to the Web site Hotornot.com, where viewers get to rank hotness on a scale of one to 10. Flynn got a 6.6 - the top score in the reporting category, although it's only fair to note that his competition included the now-elderly Seymour Hersh and the Texas Observer's Nate Blakeslee, who might be very hot if only a photo were available.

Have a look at www.observer.com. The site will have changed over by the time you read this, so just enter " Sean Flynn " in the search engine.

Issue Date: May 10 - 17, 2001