11 Comments

1. 

   Julia Malakie on October 27, 2014 at 10:52 am

   Blue Mass Group says they saw this coming: http://bluemassgroup.com/2014/10/did-anyone-think-the-globe-would-not-endorse-charlie-baker/
   I hadn’t really thought about who the Globe would endorse. But scrolling down to the bottom of the Globe’s endorsement, to see the links to other endorsements, I was surprised and impressed to see they picked St Aubin for Auditor.

2. 

   Joshua Norman on October 27, 2014 at 11:57 am

   I wasn’t surprised that the Globe endorsed Charlie since Baker refused to sign the No New Taxes pledge and supports amnesty for illegals, Common Core, the South Coast Rail boondoggle, the Cape Wind Boondoggle, socialized healthcare, the Community Plundering Act Tax Surcharge and the DeLeo Gun Grab.

   I was surprised that the Globe endorsed the Republican Patty Saint Aubin for Auditor while the Herald endorsed the ethically challenged Democrat incumbent Suzanne Bump.
   http://www.votecorevalues.org/home/2014/Mass/Governor_Statewide/GOVERNOR_STATE-WIDE.html

3. 

   BOB BURKE on October 27, 2014 at 1:27 pm

   I predicted this, but it was based on incomplete information about the Globe’s endorsements in the other races. I didn’t know they had endorsed the Republican candidate for auditor, so I figured they would give the nod to Charlie because they always try hard to endorse one Republican in every election. I think Baker is a good fit for the corporate mode the Globe has evolved into. Kevin Cullen’s the only one who is worker and union friendly. The others are corporate shills and decidedly against organized labor. The Globe as “Liberal”. My eye.

4. 

   Jane on October 27, 2014 at 8:57 pm

   What Bob said. It was hard for me to accept that the Boston Globe has turned into a corporate shill. As a child, I was raised in a home that had 4 newspapers delivered to our home, one of which was the Globe. Three years ago, I cancelled my subscription, after being 54 year subscriber and I don’t miss its present version.

   The Globe is owned by the owner of a major sports team in a sports-crazed city. I find the loss of the quality of local print media to be a really sad situation.

5. 

   BOB BURKE on October 27, 2014 at 9:15 pm

   The final straw was when I was racing in Boston Harbor a few years back and passed John Henry’s humongous yacht which was flying a Bahamian flag. This isn’t a partisan thing. I was even more upset when John Kerry tried to register his yacht in Rhode Island to save on the taxes he would have otherwise paid to the Commonwealth.

6. 

   Jane on October 27, 2014 at 10:08 pm

   What Bob said.

7. 

   Amanda Heller on October 27, 2014 at 10:18 pm

   Can’t consider this too surprising if you recall that the Globe endorsed Baker very warmly (deliriously, even) in the Republican primary but bypassed Coakley altogether on the Democratic side.

8. 

   Emily Norton on October 28, 2014 at 12:48 am

   While I don’t agree with their endorsement in this case (obviously they didn’t read my Commonwealth piece!)I want to defend the Boston Globe in general. From the Catholic church child sexual abuse, to the Probation Dept, to unaccountable immigration judges locking up innocent people and releasing murderers, to the exploitation of Boston taxi drivers, to the lack of inspections of Boston rental apartments… you name it, when it comes to local scandals and wrongdoing, it was the Boston Globe that uncovered it. And it would still be going on if they hadn’t done so! I wouldn’t dream of giving up my daily hard copy delivery and I thank the heavens that they are out there holding our leaders accountable, because if they weren’t doing it, no one else would be.

9. 

   Jane on October 28, 2014 at 8:24 am

   Emily-The operative word in your defense of the Globe is “was”. It’s been a sad decline since the days when the Globe was the leading force in making the public aware of the horror of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.

   No doubt they love a scandal, but they’ve muddled their news and editorial pages in recent years. Read the news article about last night’s debate. It was as close to an editorial for their endorsed candidate that you could find. I’m not asking much, just a newspaper with only news in the news section. Opinions belong on the editorial pages, and when you mix the two, you lose me.

10. 

    BOB BURKE on October 28, 2014 at 8:38 am

    @Emily. You are absolutely right about their spotlight series which have exposed some truly heinous and otherwise hidden scandals, and I have a particularly warm spot in my heart for Brian McGrory, the new Globe editor. I think it should be noted,however, that the now defunct Boston Phoenix first blew the whistle on the church scandal and student overcrowding. I really miss that paper. My problem with the Globe is with too many of their writers and editorials consistently come down on the side of corporations and management over employees and they have no empathy for workers who are displaced by automation or outsourcing. Tom Keane, Scot Lehigh, Jake Jacoby, Lawrence Harmon and Joan Vennachhi constantly snipe at teachers and the teachers unions and their endorsement of private universities and non union public school alternatives are a case in point. They seldom if ever acknowledge the really tough job teachers in public schools have in helping students from broken homes and from poor and unsafe neighborhoods cross the bridge to academic success. You get the impression that none of them have ever worked in this environment. This isn’t the only issue in which they side with management against workers and against unions in particular. The New York Times is far more friendly to labor than the Globe is. I’m not always a fan of what Teachers Unions do or advocate, but fair is fair. Their problems and challenges seldom make it into the news media, but every flaw and shortcoming, even if it derives from something beyond a teacher’s control, gets magnified.

11. 

    BOB BURKE on October 28, 2014 at 8:40 am

    PS. John Henry’s yacht with the Bahamian flag still rankles.