1999
ARCHIVES
By Dan Kennedy
Senior writer/media critic
The Boston
Phoenix
Last
updated on August 10,
2000
The
contents of this Web site
are copyright © 1999 by Daniel D. Kennedy. The articles listed on
this page are copyright © 1999 by the Boston
Phoenix,
Inc. All rights
reserved.
December 31, 1999
GAME, SET, MATCH
The big news of 1999 is that the 2000 presidential race has already
been decided. The loser: you.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Gays, marriage, and religious "truth."
December 24, 1999
THIS JUST IN: As the Globe
turns
Tales from the naked newsroom.
December 17, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: Choice and
consequences
Reaction to the Globe's striking series on a girl
with Down
syndrome. Plus, bias on the right, and Andrew Sullivan crosses the line.
THIS JUST IN: Media
The end of the news as we know it.
December 10, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: New Age conservative
The Union Leader's new editorialist is young,
female, and
thoughtful -- the antithesis of the vitriolic men who've held the
position in the past.
December 3, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: Sex and sensibilities
The Hillsdale College scandal reveals rifts on the right. Plus, Net
radio boosts do-it-yourself media, and George W.'s dirty trick.
THIS JUST IN: Media
God, magazines, and malpractice.
November 26, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: Ex Post
facto
The Washington Post Company-NBC News partnership joins a much-admired
news organization with two of the richest companies on earth. But
what's good for the media moguls is bad news for the rest of us.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Clean Elections and the demise of talk radio.
November 19, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: Rebel geek
The media's fascination with Bill Gates reflects the myth of the
entrepreneur as romantic outlaw.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Radioactive hype from the Moyers connection.
November 12, 1999
CLIFFHANGER
The Boston Herald is better than ever, and
publisher Pat
Purcell says it's profitable and financially secure. So why is
circulation falling like a rock? And -- more important -- what can
Purcell do to keep his paper alive?
THIS JUST IN: Media
Howard Kurtz chastises Globe's "sleight of hand."
November 5, 1999
THE BEST: Local heroes
Citizens' Media Corps.
THIS
JUST IN: Free speech
Public to First Amendment: Drop dead.
October 29, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: Missing pieces
The Globe's Mickey Roache revelations were
incomplete --
especially where the Globe's own actions were concerned. Plus, Fells
Acres myths and reality.
THIS JUST IN: Media
A changing of the guard at the AP.
October 22, 1999
DON'T QUOTE ME: NY state of mind
The New York Times Company scoops up the Worcester Telegram
&
Gazette and protects its investment in the Boston
Globe.
But will the T&G become a better paper
under Times
ownership?
THIS JUST IN: Media
She's gonna make that Angel hers.
October 15
DON'T QUOTE ME: Solo practitioner
Mickey Kaus takes to the Web. Plus, why no one's talking about Talk,
and Brian McGrory tries something new (no, it's not the revised sketch
over his column).
THIS JUST IN: Media
Talking back to corporate monopolists.
October 8
DON'T QUOTE ME: Raging moderate
Margaret Marshall is a favorite of the liberal elite, but her
background shows that she puts pragmatism and ambition ahead of
ideological purity.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Keeping score at the New Republic.
October 1
DON'T QUOTE ME: Thinking big
Two very different books share one vision: the renewal of civic life
through a genuinely democratic media.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Bracing for change at the Atlantic.
September 24
DON'T QUOTE ME: He said, he Said
Revelations about a leading Palestinian rejectionist have sparked
controversy across the world -- and in the offices of the Boston
Globe and the New Republic.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Radio in the park.
September 17
THE
TWO FACES OF OLYMPIA SNOWE AND SUSAN COLLINS
Their moderate approaches to policy are matched by a
keen
sense of political calculation -- sometimes to the detriment of their
constituents. (Published in the debut issue of the Portland
Phoenix.)
September 10
THIS JUST IN: Media
The death -- and rebirth? -- of MediaGossip.com
September 3
MAN OF THE LEFT
Victor Navasky's new Ken Starr farce deserved a better fate. But
Navasky, the man who reinvigorated the Nation,
knows better
than most that it's not always the size of the audience that counts.
THIS
JUST IN: Kinsley watch
Coming soon to a computer near you?
August 27
DON'T QUOTE ME: Between the lines
Now that the frenzy over the Bush cocaine story has abated, W. should
say what he's done -- and what he intends to do about our phony 'war on
drugs.'
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Who was that mystery photog?
August 20
MILD-MANNERED HATEMONGER
J. Edward Pawlick says he just wants to provoke a discussion. So why is
he scaring the hell out of the people he hopes to engage?
THIS JUST IN: Media
The Atlantic versus the slave redeemers, round 2
August 13
DON'T QUOTE ME: Fear strikes out
When abstract evil hits home.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Irreconcilable differences at the Globe.
THIS JUST IN: Barnicle watch
Mike to air on WSJZ.
August 6
DON'T QUOTE ME: Talk
show
Tina Brown proves she can still generate that old-time
buzz.
But can she put her money-losing days behind her?
THIS JUST IN: Globe
watch
It's the pipeline, stupid; Jacoby trips up.
July 30
DON'T QUOTE ME: Cash and carry
The real scandal in public broadcasting is the way
corporations influence what gets run -- and what doesn't.
THIS JUST IN: Media watch
The NY mags' Kennedy state of mind.
THIS JUST IN: Tooting our own horn
Dan Kennedy wins National Press Club award.
July 23
DON'T QUOTE ME: John and George
Kennedy liked to say his magazine was about
the
confluence of politics and pop culture. The truth is that it was always
about himself.
THE CULT OF THE PALM PILOT
When the Internet invades our shirt pockets, it's time
to
worry.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Navel-gazing over the Taylors.
July 16
DON'T QUOTE ME: Taylor unmade
The demise of the Globe's ruling
family portends big
changes at 135 Morrissey Boulevard.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Blowing deadline with Al Neuharth.
July 9
DON'T QUOTE ME: Touched by a/k/a
Angel
A close encounter, once removed, with a suspected
serial
killer. Plus, how the Herald found 'The Lost Boy,'
and Brill's
latest cheap-shot victim: Mike Barnicle.
July 2
THE SECOND ANNUAL MUZZLE AWARDS
10 who undermined free speech.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Black and white and blue all over.
June 25
DON'T QUOTE ME: Up from slavery
The Atlantic Monthly fuels a debate
over buying
slaves their freedom. Plus, the Globe goes all-out
in Kosovo,
and George Will's free ride continues.
THIS
JUST IN: As the Globe turns
A Golden handshake that no one wants.
June 18
THE TWO FACES OF HILLARY RODHAM
CLINTON
The public loves the stand-by-your-man wife, but she's
not
running. Welcome, once again, the cookie-dissing,
Whitewater-dissembling, health-care-botching "equal partner" who nearly
set off a culture war during her husband's first term.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Steven Brill's bullet-stained dress.
June 11
LONE RANGERS
At one time, Web magazines such as Slate
and Salon
were hailed as harbingers of a new media order. Today they're pulling
in readers but hemorrhaging money -- and no one is following in their
footsteps. What's going on?
THIS
JUST IN: Media notes
The American Prospect gets ready
for the big time.
June 4
DON'T QUOTE ME: Mogul-jumping
The biographer of magazine magnate S.I. Newhouse Jr.
takes on
some powerful media icons. Too bad her case is so weak.
THIS JUST IN: Gosh, we're good
In praise of Barnicle-bashing. (The Phoenix's
official announcement of my winning the 1999 award for media reporting
from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.)
May 28
THE MEDIA WAR
Documenting Milosevic's evil crusade was the easy part.
Now
comes the harder task: illuminating the way out. Plus, the New
York
Times' Anthony Lewis vs. the Boston Globe's
James Carroll.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Jeff Jacoby's historical rewrite.
May 14
DON'T QUOTE ME: Direct access
The Internet will kill cable TV as we know it -- and
that
can't happen a moment too soon.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Howard Stern's protective layer of hypocrisy.
May 7
DON'T QUOTE ME: Chomp, chomp
Times Mirror swallows the Advocate
weeklies, raising
serious questions about the future of the alternative press.
THIS
JUST IN: Talk radio
Who'll fill in when Brudnoy cuts back?
April 30
WHAT, ME WORRY?
With the scandals on hold and crises at hand, 16
political,
social, and cultural observers look at whether Bill Clinton knows what
he's doing.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Tastelessness compounded by bad timing.
April 16
DON'T QUOTE ME: Pulitzer Lite
Dumbing down with Maureen Dowd and the AP. Plus, Peter
Canellos's poison pen, and Ruth Shalit says good-bye to all that.
April 9
DON'T QUOTE ME
Globe and Herald
squeeze as economy soars.
April 2
WAVES OF DOUBT
Get ready for the environmental battle of the next
decade:
the fight against electromagnetic fields. Cell phones and broadcast
antennas are only part of a problem that could threaten us all.
DON'T QUOTE ME
The Herald skips its own minority
job fair.
March 26
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Mush from the wimps.
March 19
THIS
JUST IN: Slaves for sale
A Boston ad agency teams up with an anti-slavery
organization
for some compelling, and disturbing, advocacy.
March 12
DON'T QUOTE ME: Say anything
The knee-jerk reaction to the 60 Minutes
Woodward
report reflects public cynicism over scientists-for-hire. Plus, the
difference between Larry Flynt and Len Downie. (Hint: not much.)
March 5
DON'T QUOTE ME: Iron Mike
Barnicle shows some heart -- and some leg -- in his big
TV
comeback.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Jon Keller leaves the Herald.
THIS
JUST IN: From the foreign desk
Guatemala, genocide, and the Globe.
February 26
DON'T QUOTE ME: Teflon scoundrel
Right-wing rants have inoculated Clinton against
more-serious
allegations. Plus, the return of "The Nuremberg Files," and the end of
the Maine Times.
February 19
DON'T QUOTE ME: NaÔvetÈ dot com
Taking issue with the Times' Amazon
exposÈ-that-wasn't. Plus, Christopher Hitchens shows some guts
-- and gets disemboweled.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
The Herald loses two veteran
reporters.
February 12
DON'T QUOTE ME: After the honeymoon
The national media have given John McCain their
unconditional
love. As he tests the presidential waters, that's about to change.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
The New Yorker ignores leukemia in
Woburn.
February 5
DON'T QUOTE ME: Immaterial girl
Deconstructing the mean-spirited nihilism of Maureen
Dowd.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
At the Globe, nowhere to go but
sideways.
January 29
DON'T QUOTE ME: Bush league
John Ellis may be the Globe's most
intriguing op-ed
columnist. He's certainly the best connected.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Race and unreason in the liberal press.
January 22
DON'T QUOTE ME: Comeback kid?
Mike Barnicle returns to Channel 5's Chronicle
amid
well wishes from his friends -- and jeers from the newsroom.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
No news is bad news at One Herald Square.
January 15
DON'T QUOTE ME: Code of silence
Explaining the media's disdain for the phony Clinton
love-child story. Plus, the Herald and the Globe
do
battle over Fenway, and two slices of newspaper history.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Giving a boost to community radio.
January 8
DON'T QUOTE ME: Fidelity rules
The Globe's blowup with the
mutual-fund giant is just
the latest example of the company's paranoid style of media relations.
THIS
JUST IN: An uncivil action
Former Woburn tanner sues author, publishers.
January 1
POLITICS: Larry Flynt, All-American
A notorious pornographer brings the political and media
establishment to its hypocritical knees.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Brian McGrory's self-indulgent overreaction.
THIS
JUST IN: A civil reaction
Schlichtmann, Woburn mother to speak at forum.
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