BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
MONEY SHOT.
There's pseudo-news and real news in John
Strahinich's Metro update
in today's Boston Herald, which is accompanied by the
characteristically restrained front-page headline "GLOBE PARTNER
PEDDLES PORN."
The pseudo-news is that a Swedish
company that televises nudie films owns a 28 percent share of Metro
International - which, in turn, is the parent company of Boston's
Metro newspaper. The New York Times Company, which owns the
Boston Globe, plans to buy a 49 percent share of the local
Metro.
Europeans tend to have a more
enlightened view about all things sexual than Americans do, although
I suppose it's noteworthy that the Swedish company's fare is racy
enough to have raised the hackles of the Norwegians some 10 years
ago. Come on, folks, just change the channel.
Still, there's big news farther
down in Strahinich's story: Partners HealthCare and Brandeis
University are reportedly rethinking whether to advertise in the
Metro following reports of vicious racist jokes in the upper
reaches of Metro International management. Partners is the parent
company of Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women's. Strahinich
writes:
"We'd have to evaluate the
situation, obviously, if we decide to do additional advertising in
the Metro," said Partners spokeswoman Petra Langer. "It's
obviously disturbing."
Added Brandeis spokesman Dennis
Nealon: "Brandeis would not want to advertise in a venue that
would be connected to this kind of behavior."
This is obviously a potential
deal-breaker, and is the sort of thing that could persuade the Times
Company to walk away from the $16.5 million deal - or to move ahead
and buy the remaining 51 percent so that they don't have to do
business with Metro International. Strahinich quotes an internal e-mail from Globe publisher Richard Gilman to the effect that things could change between now and the closing date.
posted at 10:51 AM |
3 comments
|
link
3 Comments:
Plague of Locusts descends on Metro. Film at 11.What got a chuckle from me while I read today's Herald-Metro article at the dinner counter waiting for breakfast was the juxtaposition of the large picture of Marilyn Monroe next to the "Peddles Porn" headline. Who's peddling sex on the front page?
Hmm, Herald doesn't have online GIF of their current front page. Are they ashamed?
Bill
Eh, since when is a CARTOON of Marilyn Monroe porn? And BTW, the gif file is online now at the Herald site.
Sex sex sexI didn't say Marilyn was selling porn, I asked if the pot calling the kettle black was selling sex. I do recognize a difference ... but when claiming the moral high-ground, it's good to actually stand there, and that's a little hard for a tittilation tabloid.
- Bill R
Post a Comment
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
