WITH THE GLOBE ORGANIZING A “FREE PRESS” EDITORIAL CAMPAIGN FOR TOMORROW, A REMINDER: The Globe conducted own ‘dirty war’ on free press.
Boston had seven daily newspapers when I started out as a newspaper reporter in the early sixties. Now there are two.
Those papers were the old Boston Herald, the p.m. Boston Traveler, The Boston Globe, Boston Evening Globe, Boston American, Boston Record and Christian Science Monitor.
In between then and now, five failing newspapers folded or were merged. And President Trump had nothing to do with killing any of them.
The same thing happened during the same period in New York, which lost the New York Mirror, The Herald Tribune, The World-Telegram & Sun and Journal-American. Now New York is down to three newspapers. And there is still no evidence that Trump had anything to do with the demise of the other four.
Neither Boston nor New York has seen a single newspaper fold since Trump became president and launched his “dirty war” (a Boston Globe phrase) against the press.
As a matter of fact, the media seems to be thriving under Trump’s unorthodox presidency. . . .
The dictionary definition of “dirty war” is: “A war conducted by the military or secret police of a regime against revolutionary and terrorist insurgents and marked by the regime’s use of kidnapping, torture and murder, with the civilian population often the victims.”
If the Globe believes this, it has become as unhinged as CNN.
This recalls a real “dirty war” against a free press that was conducted by the Globe in Boston a generation ago.
This took place when the Boston Herald Traveler (the papers merged in 1967) sought to renew its license to continue operation of the original WHDH-TV.
Back in the 1960s the conservative Herald Traveler and the liberal Globe were locked in serious competition for circulation and advertising, while the merged Hearst-owned Record American looked on.
It was no secret that revenue from the television station kept the Herald Traveler alive, which the Globe resented.
Working behind the scenes, the Globe supported a group of liberal investors who formed Boston Broadcasters Inc. to compete for the license before the Federal Communications Commission. It promised more public interest broadcasting, which never materialized.
So confident were they that they would strip the Herald Traveler of its license, Boston Broadcasters began building a television facility in Needham even before the issue was adjudicated. The fix was in.
The Globe went to work in Washington to defeat the Herald Traveler.
The back story was that the Globe covertly used its political columnists and reporters to pressure future House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill of Cambridge and other Massachusetts political figures to persuade the FCC to deny the Herald Traveler the license.
It worked. . . . The Globe has shut down more newspapers in Boston than Donald Trump.
That’s different because shut up. More at the link.