BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Monday, March 22, 2004
HERALD EXODUS
CONTINUES. Two more familiar bylines will soon be disappearing.
Investigative reporter Jonathan Wells, a veteran of CBS's 60
Minutes, gave his notice at the Boston Herald today. He's
leaving to become executive producer of the investigative unit at
WFXT-TV (Channel 25), known as "Fox
25 Undercover." The unit
comprises an on-air reporter, Mike Beaudet; the executive producer's
slot that Wells just took; and a producer's position that Wells will
be filling. You can bet the résumés are flying between
Wingo Square and Channel 25's Dedham headquarters.
Media Log has also learned that
City Hall reporter Ellen Silberman will be leaving to take a job with
state inspector general Gregory Sullivan. Silberman was unable to
talk when I reached her, but she did confirm the pending
move.
"It's a combination of things,"
Wells told me when I asked him why he was leaving the Herald.
"The most important reason is that I had planned at some point in the
near future to try to go back into television, and this was a good
opportunity to do it, and to do it in Boston."
Wells declined to discuss the
ongoing turmoil at the Herald, but there has been plenty. In
recent weeks editor Andy Costello was removed, managing editor Andrew
Gully announced he would be leaving no later than June, and Mike
Barnicle - who lost his column at the Boston Globe in 1998 in
part because the Herald revealed he'd lifted one-liners from a
George Carlin book - was hired, to considerable newsroom
consternation.
Wells worked at the Herald
for six years before moving to 60 Minutes in 1993. He returned
to Boston in 1999, and ended up back at the Herald after the
Globe proved to be reluctant to bring him aboard.
The two Herald stories Wells
says he's proudest of are the paper's post-9/11 coverage of ties
between Saudi Arabia and both the Clinton and Bush White Houses, and
a series from last year (with recent
follow-ups) of possible
ties between the Islamic Society of Boston and several people who may
had dealings with terrorists.
Update: Ellen Silberman
checks in to say that she's leaving for reasons other than the
turmoil that's hit the Herald newsroom. "I've been at the
Herald for six years," she says. "I don't want to go the
Globe. And I would like to make decent money at some point in
my life. So this seemed like a good opportunity. The timing is
largely coincidental. It happens to be a moment of uncertainty at the
Herald." She adds: "It's not like I'm a rat leaving a sinking
ship. That's not where I'm at. It's more money, it's better hours,
and it's a new challenge."
Silberman will leave the
Herald in early April and begin working at the IG's office at
the end of the month. She adds that she'll be helping with
investigations, not press.
BRUDNOY'S BACK TONIGHT. The
talk-radio legend will be behind the mike from 7 to 10 p.m. on WBZ
Radio (AM 1030).
posted at 3:14 PM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
