2000
ARCHIVES
By Dan Kennedy
Senior writer/media critic
The Boston
Phoenix
Last
updated on December 28,
2000
The
contents of this Web site
are copyright © 2000 by Daniel D. Kennedy. The articles listed on
this page are copyright © 2000 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc., unless otherwise
indicated. All rights reserved.
December 28
YEAR
IN REVIEW: Reality bursts
dot-com bubble
But the Internet is better than ever.
THIS
JUST IN: Free speech
Boston and Cambridge librarians to debate.
December 21
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Racial divide
Bush won because hundreds of African-Americans in Florida weren't
allowed to vote. Now he's got to live with the consequences.
WEB
EXTRA: The Grinch and Pat
Purcell
60 union employees picket the Herald, seeking
renewed contract
talks and better medical benefits.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Hillary's critics and the Wright connection.
THIS
JUST IN: Rough starts
W. has company.
December 14
THIS
JUST IN: Media
How a passive media helped Bush win. (Update of December 11
item
for the Phoenix's print edition.)
December 11
WEB
EXTRA: Co-conspirators
By covering Bush's post-campaign as though it were politics-as-usual,
the media are complicit in his attempted theft.
December 1
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Hypocrisy on the editorial pages.
November 17
BEYOND
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Some common-sense ideas for reforming our antiquated voting system.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Jack Thomas's comic obsession.
November 13, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: Close call
Don't blame competition-crazed network execs for the double-clutch in
Florida. Blame those botched ballots instead.
November 10, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: The Bush coup
Gore won the election. So why are the pundits calling on him to concede?
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Count on it
The Bush-Gore squeaker was the inevitable result of an artificial,
manufactured contest, passively covered by a media too lazy to
challenge it.
THIS
JUST IN: As the Globe
turns
Thinking outside the (big) box; column cutting.
November 3, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: Bush's DWI: Two
views
A ridiculous little non-story.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Jeff Jacoby returns.
October 27, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Gone to the
dogs
Voters are disengaged, and the media are restive and unhappy about it.
But don't blame the moronic undecideds -- blame it on a post-political
system that rewards money, moderation, and mush.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Third parties come to PBS; Giordano's AP exposÈ.
October 20, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: The image
makers
The Middle East horror underscores an essential truth about the media:
pictures trump context.
THIS
JUST IN: How Gore blew it
The veep destroys Bush once again. But after eight
years in
office, it seems, too many people just don't like him.
October 13, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: Default mode
Bush is back in the lead, as he has been for most of the past year.
Blame Gore, of course -- but blame the media as well.
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Howell's
dilemma
The media won't cover her extensively because she's going to lose. And
she's going to lose, in part, because the media won't cover her
extensively.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Newsweek and news-this-week.
October 6, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: Smushed Bush
Cheney's performance last night underscores his running mate's
shortcomings.
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Spinning W.'s L
Bush was brutal, but the media -- wanting to be fair
and
cowed by an ignorant public -- pronounce him fit to serve.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Making sense of the Herald's suburban push.
September 29, 2000
WEB
EXTRA: Fidelity calls it
quits
Boston Herald publisher Pat Purcell
buys mutual-fund
giant's 100-plus Community Newspaper chain.
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Behind the
facelift
The Globe's redesign is part of a larger agenda:
transforming
the paper into a more profitable enterprise. It's not sexy. But if it
works, the paper may avoid the fate of its downsized peers.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Sneering from atop the New Yorker.
September 22, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Dr. Debate
Northeastern's Alan Schroeder talks about 40 years of televised debates
-- and about the upcoming slugfest between Gore and Bush.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Silber's attempted coup; plus, map flap.
September 15, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Judging Lopez
A high-profile female judge + a transgendered perp + a victim whose
story can't be checked out = a memorably gruesome media orgy.
THIS
JUST IN: Media
Easy on the eyes.
September 1, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Flinging the
p-word
A fill-in columnist for the Globe's Jeff Jacoby is
hit with
bogus charges of (you guessed it) plagiarism.
THIS
JUST IN: Media notes
Slick Willie returns; the Atlantic's expats; rating
Jay Carr.
August 25, 2000
THIS
JUST IN: Media
The Herald sticks by a flawed exclusive.
August 18, 2000
BABY
BILLS
Gore wants to be seen as the rightful inheritor of
Clinton's
legacy. But it's Bush who reminds voters of Clinton's easygoing
affability -- and Gore who conjures up the dark side.
August 14 through 18,
2000
DAILY
DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
UPDATES
The Phoenix is in Los Angeles this week, filing
daily for
BostonPhoenix.com from the Democratic National Convention.
August 11, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Saint Joseph
Some tough questions might dent Lieberman's halo. Plus, the latest on
Mike Barnicle and Jeff Jacoby, and the veepstakes claim a victim: the Herald.
August 4, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: No news is bad
news
The media whine about the no-news convention and miss the real story:
The public's profound alienation from politics.
July 31 through
August 4, 2000
DAILY
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
UPDATES
My Phoenix colleague Seth Gitell and I are in
Philadelphia and
filing daily for BostonPhoenix.com. New stuff goes up every morning
between 10 and 11 a.m.
July 28, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Whose rights?
What's behind the nasty struggle between the Boston Globe
and
its freelance contributors?
July 21, 2000
DON'T
QUOTE ME: Changing the
rules
More evidence that the Globe held Jeff Jacoby to a
different
standard. Plus, the Herald's quest for diversity,
and golden
oldies at the American Prospect.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Radio's future -- global or local?
July 14, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Cruel and unusual
Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby paid far too high a price for an
unintentional lapse of judgment.
THIS JUST IN: Freedom of speech
Hey, you don't hate us quite so much.
July 7, 2000
THIS JUST IN: Personally
Scouts, gays, and the illogic of the law.
June 30, 2000
THE THIRD ANNUAL MUZZLE AWARDS
10 who undermined freedom of speech and personal liberties.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Al Gore, silent angel of death.
June 23, 2000
THE GEEK WE LOVE TO HATE
Some extremely random observations and outrageous
digressions
about our cultural obsession with Bill Gates.
June 16, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Slash dot-com
Salon's financial woes nix the dream of IPO riches for journalists. So
what works online? Try small, passionate, and cheap.
THIS JUST IN: Media
The mother of all denials.
BOOKS: What a deal
The FBI, the Devil, and Bill Weld.
WIN-WIN
Phoenix takes five in Phoenix.
June 9, 2000
THIS JUST IN: Media
Servicing the online porn industry.
June 2, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Town crier
A small-town publisher pushes local officials to conduct the public's
business in public.
THIS JUST IN: Media
At Boston, a staff under stress.
THIS JUST IN: Web extra
Jeff Jacoby, James Madison, and the First Amendment.
May 26, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Banned by Boston
Behind the sudden departure of editor Craig Unger.
Plus, the Ledger
goes on the block (again); Herald publisher Pat
Purcell says
he's interested.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Barnicle gets the Mugger treatment.
May 19, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Battle lines
In the wake of the AP and New Yorker
controversies,
some reflections on the uneasy relationship between journalism and war.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Calling off the cybercensors at Fidelity's newspapers.
May 12, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Screen greens
Erin Brockovich and Jan Schlichtmann are battling over Salem's toxic
power plant. More intriguing, though, is Schlichtmann's battle with
himself.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Putting the public back in public broadcasting.
May 5, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Fleet street
A Herald reporter's suspension illuminates a larger
issue: the
media's obligation to provide tough, ongoing coverage of a financial
behemoth.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Running scared.
April 24-27, 2000
THE BREAKFAST TABLE
With Cynthia Cotts of the Village Voice. From Slate.
April 21, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Fire on the left
A dispute over Project Censored illuminates the fissures within the
alternative press.
April 14, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Editorial privilege
New Globe publisher Richard Gilman faces his first
big test:
choosing someone to lead the paper's opinion pages.
THIS JUST IN: Media
The Big Dig and the so-called power of the press.
April 7, 2000
THIS JUST IN: Media
Antitrust coverage, then and now.
March 31, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Gay and wired
PlanetOut's bold move shows that community, not content, is king. Plus,
voting on the Net, and Disney sees the open-access light.
March 24, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Let us prey
From politicians to the pope, an unprecedented religious war of words
has infected the culture -- and the media.
THIS JUST IN: Pundit's purple majesty
The wit and wisdom of David Nyhan.
THIS JUST IN: Media
What did Michael Skakel really say?
March 17, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Artistic offense
A writer, a Web site, and a violent fantasy raise some disquieting
questions about free speech in the workplace.
March 10, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: A political death
foretold
By the time John McCain joined Bill Bradley on the sidelines, his
demise had already been predicted, inspected, and dissected.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Allston-Brighton community radio returns.
March 3, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: The Big Dig
misconception
To read the Herald and the Globe,
you'd think that
Boston's dailies were engaged in a classic muckraking battle. Ha! It's
the Wall Street Journal that's setting the pace.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Heading for the exits at CNC.
February 25, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Dial 'M' for media
Danny Schechter fights the power with a new Web venture. Plus, John
McCain spams the Net, and talk radio shows signs of life.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Michael Kelly's cautious Atlantic debut.
February 18, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: The love bus
On the road with John McCain -- and the media horde that adores him.
Plus, trailing George W. Bush.
THIS JUST IN: Media
At the Herald, a difficult judgment call.
SELF-PROMO: We're number one
The Phoenix is honored by the New England Press
Association.
February 11, 2000
WEB SPECIAL: Bush -- or McCain --
country?
Tacking right in the heart of the Confederacy.
DON'T QUOTE ME: The accidental
primaries
How the media can make a difference in the campaign that wasn't
supposed to matter.
THIS JUST IN: Media
Have you seen the Globe today?
February 4, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Fidelity's last stand
Ten years on, the company's community newspapers are beset by layoffs,
poor community relations, and poisonous morale. Can this empire be
saved?
NEW HAMPSHIRE: The spin
The pundits have spoken -- and they hate Bush and Gore.
THIS JUST IN: Media
A couple of joint resolutions on Al Gore.
January 28, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: It ain't over
Iowa speaks, and the pundits rush to judgment. But first there's the
small matter of the primaries.
THIS JUST IN: Media
John McCain and the FCC: And now, the rest of the story.
January 21, 2000
DON'T QUOTE ME: Virtually revealing
Presidential candidates' Web sites reflect the strengths and
weirdnesses of each challenger.
THIS JUST IN: Media
James Fallows goes to work for an old critic.
January 14, 2000
SLICK BILLY
Bill Bradley has cloaked himself in the aura of authenticity. The
reality is that he, like Al Gore, is just another pol.
THIS JUST IN: Media
A silver lining to the AOL-Time Warner cloud.
January 7, 2000
TECHNOLOGY: Net loss
The cable companies, led by giant AT&T, want to turn the
Internet
into their own private cash register. And the government's doing
nothing to stop them.
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 28, 1999
FORGET NEW HAMPSHIRE
From the New
York Press.
(Second item.)
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.
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