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Attitude

All human institutions have institutional character flaws. Newspapers are no exception. Their quirks and imperfections are more apparent than other organizations, because newspapers have a collective voice. Their collective characters are on display each day.

Any Bostonian knows the flawed trait of my former employer the Herald. In a word, insanity. The Herald presents life as an endless series of exclamation points, a truly loopy, no, disturbed way of viewing the universe. In justice to the old stand, I must point out that worldview is not a cynical marketing ploy. It was and I assume still is the (lack of) thought process that dominated every aspect of the organization. Folks, if you think the Herald seems a little weird from the outside looking in, you can't imagine what it was like from the inside looking out. The collective nuttiness was THE number one reason working their was a joy. Fun and sanity aren't often running mates.

Any Bostonian also knows the character flaw that blights the Globe. In a word, snootiness. New England's largest if shrinking newspaper operates on the premise it is the benevolent, all-seeing colonial governor in these parts. We the readers are the childlike, backward, basically pathetic natives who need its constant guidance. The Globe knows best. Its shit don't stink and never will. From the "Curse of the Bambino" to running the funny papers for political balance rather than laughs, when the Globe fails, it does so with a patronizing smile at its customers.

Gosh, that's appealing. Who wouldn't want to buy a product with that message? And never, ever, will one find better examples of the Globe's group flaw than in its commentary on last night's gubernatorial debate.

I pause here to qualify my message. The subjects of what's to come are the Globe's editorial page, which is run by someone I consider a good friend, and metro columnist Brian McGrory, who I think's a pretty good writer more often than not. I hope both will take my observations as a gentle admonition to do better, not a personal attack.

If they don't, tough. What they brought to the table in today's paper was real weak shit.

With its nose so far in the air it must've whacked the top of the Hancock, the lead editorial admonished all four candidates, but mostly Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick, for not giving voters a campaign worthy of the Globe's coverage. The debate had too many soundbites and generalities and not enough specifics.

This just in. Patrick and Healey aren't interested in running the kind of campaign the Globe would like to cover. They want to run the kind of campaign that'll get 'em elected. The presidential campaigns of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy were full of soundbites, generalities, and promises each man abandoned the moment they took the oath of office. We simple-minded voters know that's the way the game is played. Why don't the bigdomes of Morrissey Blvd. get it?

As blogosphere observers from both the left and right have noted, the TV debate format makes coherent discussion of the issues actually impossible. In their alloted time, candidates are lucky if they can get off a soundbite or generality. They're hard-pressed to speak in complete sentences. Put Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire, Pericles, and Winston Churchill up on stage with the same format, and they couldn't do any better than the candidates did last night.

If the Globe wants specifics, let me introduce it to the Internet. You know, the handy gizmo that's putting the paper out of business. Every candidate for every office down to small town tree preservation council has a web site spelling out their positions in enough detail to choke Bill Clinton. Ideology aside, it's a slur on all four gubernatorial hopefuls to say they haven't addressed the issues. They may not have done it well, but they all tried.

Take it from a former newspaper opinionist. Cluelessness is an occupational hazard that snares us all from time to time. Hatefulness is less excusable, and in HIS effort to appear superior, McGrory went way over the line into just that.

"And Grace Ross?" McGrory wrote of the Green party candidate last night. "She seems really nice. But let's step beyond the political correctness and admit that she has none of the support and qualifications that entitle her to a spot on the stage. She's a distraction and she no longer belongs."

I don't know Ross. I'm not gonna vote for her. But on behalf of Ross, anyone who does know her, anyone who is going to vote for her, and, in fact, for all the voters of Massachusetts, I'd like to deliver a rebuttal to McGrory's remarks.

Fuck you, Brian, you arrogant, pretentious jackass! Who the flying fuck are you to say who belongs in an election and who doesn't? Aren't the debates supposed to show us Ross' qualifications for office or lack of same? Isn't her level of support (and the other three candidates') yet to be determined? Isn't that why we're voting on Nov. 7 in the first place? We're all so sorry democracy offends your super-developed sense of smell.

Rant over. McGrory deserved it, but as noted, his offensive remarks stemmed from the basic Globe attitude that drives its readers into a rage and has been doing so for all of the 35 years I've lived here. One of America's top newspapers operates on the theory God died and left it in charge of New England. It's an unappealing trait.

Businesswise, it's also a suicidal one. The primary fact of Globe life is its balance sheet, not its content. The paper is losing readers, advertisers, and revenue in appalling quantities. It's not going too far to say the Globe's troubles are all that's keeping the Herald alive. Its collective attitude can only be making its problems worse. The Globe high-hats its readers today, it's like going to one's high school reunion, seeing the cheerleader/football captain one had a crush on who's now fat, 40, living in a trailer down by the river, and they STILL won't give you the time of day. It's more comical than irritating.

To fix that problem, the Globe's corporate masters in New York gave the paper a new publisher last month. He's got a tough job. There may not be a publisher on earth who can solve the problems facing newspapers. Beat the Internet? Get young people to read more? Gandalf the Grey couldn't come up with a business plan for those babies.

Self-improvement, however, is always possible, for individuals and institutions alike. The new publisher could insist his newspaper work on a new attitude.

As a Globe reader since 1974, let me say it couldn't hurt.

posted by Michael Gee @ 12:24 PM