Copyright © 1999 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Media

Who was that mystery photog?

By Dan Kennedy

With Peter Blute's career in ruins, Sandy Tennant's future in doubt, and Gidget "Smaller Than Robi Blute" Churchill's résumé picked over to the last detail, one big question remains: who blew the whistle on the Good Ship Nauticus?

Boston Herald editor Andy Costello told the Phoenix last week that he had no idea who had tipped off his paper that Blute was about to embark on what proved to be his final publicly funded voyage. Indeed, Costello described the dime-dropper as an anonymous tipster, raising the possibility that the mystery would never be solved.

But an intriguing angle developed over the weekend. First, on Friday, August 20, Herald columnist Howie Carr reported that Herald photographer Matt Stone was not the only cameraman who captured Blute's back, Tennant's beers, and Churchill's breasts. Carr wrote that "there was not one, but two shutterbugs on the dock. One guy was from the Herald and the other was from . . . where? Not the Globe." Carr also described the photographer as "taking orders from a cell phone." Hmm.

Things got curiouser on Saturday, when the Herald ran yet another photo of Blute, this time seen socializing with friends in Charlestown before the cruise. The photo credit simply read, "Special to the Herald."

Hmm again. Let's see -- if the mystery photographer was taking orders from the dime-dropper, and the Herald then turned around and published a photo with a mysterious photo credit, doesn't it stand to reason that the Herald has now identified the photog? And, further, doesn't that mean Costello and company have figured out who ratted on Blute? And isn't that likely to leak out sooner rather than later?

"That was a picture that we picked up from a freelancer -- an unorthodox freelancer," says managing editor for news Andrew Gully. As to the identity of the freelancer, and whether he's the same person mentioned in Carr's column, Gully adds, "We'll leave that up to the political junkies to speculate. I'm in a delicate position, so I'm not going to talk about it."