The front page of the New Bedford Standard-Times on March 1 was a free-fire zone for Democratic critics of Governor Mitt Romney’s proposed budget cuts, as legislators spoke out at a forum at Bristol Community College. Beneath a headline that read reps rip romney, legislators labeled Romney’s budget as everything from " a pure outright lie " to " an amateurish political statement. "

It’s been like that across Massachusetts in the weeks since Romney released his budget proposal for the next fiscal year — a proposal that, among other things, calls for a reduction of some $232 million in local aid. From the Salem News (MAYORS BLAST ROMNEY BUDGET, March 11) to the Somerville Journal (STATE BUDGET SHUTTERS HALFWAY HOUSE, February 27), from the Bay State Banner (BLACK LAWMAKERS BLAST ROMNEY BUDGET CUTS, March 6) to the MetroWest Daily News (CUTS COULD SWELL UP TO 20 PERCENT, March 4), community-based newspapers have been documenting a chronicle of pain — mainly in the form of possible layoffs for cops, firefighters, and teachers.

The two statewide papers, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, have been offering a more mixed view. To be sure, the papers have reported extensively on the possible effect of cuts in local aid. But spokespersons for Romney invariably get their say in the Boston media, which doesn’t always happen in local news outlets. In addition, the negative stories in the Globe and the Herald are balanced by reports on the showdown between Romney and the highly unpopular UMass president, Bill Bulger, as well as by such pieces as last Friday’s aw-shucks Globe feature on Romney’s penchant for making random, friendly phone calls to state employees.

" I think the Boston media, maybe by its nature and maybe by the culture of State House coverage, doesn’t really spend a lot of time looking at the effect of things outside of Boston, " says Standard-Times editor Ken Hartnett. Adds Bill Everhart, editorial-page editor of the Pittsfield-based Berkshire Eagle: " Not to disparage the Boston press, but we probably have more of a hands-on approach as to what’s going on with our local selectmen and city councilors and mayors. "

Somerville mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay is more blunt. " I think he [Romney] is getting a free ride in the Globe and the Herald. In the local press, they’re dealing with the cuts, because we’re giving them the information on the impact of what that’s going to have on the city, and they’re printing that. "

Carolyn Ryan, the Globe’s assistant managing editor for local news, begs to differ with Kelly Gay, saying, " The Globe’s coverage of the local-aid question has been very aggressive. " But she adds, " People voted for Romney and suggested that they wanted change. There’s a genuine and authentic philosophical difference, and we need to capture that in addition to reporting the specific details of each cut. "

Joe Sciacca, the Herald’s deputy managing editor for politics, concedes, " The Boston media tends to be much more State House–centric. Occasionally we’ll talk to local officials, but it’s always a challenge on deadline to get a real feel for how these cuts are going to impact local communities. "

Romney’s director of communications, Eric Fehrnstrom, contends that the anti-Romney tone of community-newspaper coverage is the result of local reporters’ taking mayors, selectmen, and school officials at their word, and not digging deeper into what is actually a complicated situation in which some local-aid funds are being cut and others are being increased. " It is the rare town reporter who calls the governor’s office seeking comment, " Fehrnstrom says.

Even as Romney gets hammered on the front pages, he’s received a more respectful hearing on the editorial pages. On March 7, the Brockton Enterprise went so far as to assert that " it is certainly not Romney’s fault these cuts need to be made and not his fault that too many cities didn’t plan well enough for this rainy day. " Adds MetroWest Daily News editorial-page editor Rick Holmes, " Everybody in every town wants to blame Romney for everything. Because it’s one way to take the responsibility off of their own shoulders. So people beat up on him. "

But even if there are shortcomings in the way local papers cover the impact of Romney’s proposal, their reporters are nevertheless performing an invaluable service: documenting precisely how the state’s cities and towns intend to deal with the pending cuts.

Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, puts it this way: " There’s nothing better than having an intern go on the Web and look at local newspaper stories, or a clipping service, to try and get what are 351 different stories out there with a common theme. Which is, there’s a lot of pain out there, a lot of dire consequences, and a lot of services are going to be cut. "

Democratic political consultant Michael Goldman, who writes a fiercely anti-Romney column for the Lowell Sun, adds, " It’s the reason why you need local papers. When you’re talking about $2 billion in cuts and you can be generic about them, it’s not about individuals or individual programs or individual lives. But when it’s the Lowell program for seniors getting lunches, when it’s the Methuen program for kids, when it’s the swimming pool in Malden — all news is local. "