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AAN 2010: Where Failure is a winner

Bragging Rights
Bragging Rights
By SHAULA CLARK | July 23, 2010

Bully for BU!

After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journ
A curious conflict of interest is followed by a legal threat — from a journalism center!
By ADAM REILLY | March 12, 2010

Stop the Quinn-sanity!

The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.
Annals of Journalistic Awkwardness
By ADAM REILLY | March 05, 2010

My impending departure

A little more than a week ago, I told the Phoenix that I was leaving to take an associate producer job at WGBH’s Greater Boston,...
By Adam Reilly | February 26, 2010

Right Click

Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressi
While conservatives have ruled radio, liberals have dominated the net. But as the rise of Red Mass Group demonstrates, the left's Web supremacy is hardly a sure thing.
By ADAM REILLY | February 19, 2010

Ransom Notes

While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and
Was the NY Times being hypocritical when it suppressed coverage of its journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban?
By ADAM REILLY | February 12, 2010

Clearing the air

Adam Reilly’s analysis of right-wing talk radio’s support of Scott Brown was nearly perfect.
Letters to the Boston editor, February 12, 2010
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 12, 2010

Poor reception

The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.
Talk radio helped energize Scott Brown's Senate campaign. Will it doom the Democrats in 2010?
By ADAM REILLY | February 05, 2010

Brave new Globe?

Sizing up the Boston Globe 's recent past is easy: simply put, in the past 12 months, the paper has seen enough gut-wrenching drama to change the name of Morrissey Boulevard to Melrose Place. But forecasting the paper's future is another matter.
With a new publisher and a bevy of edit changes, is the Boston Globe poised for a new chapter?
By ADAM REILLY | January 29, 2010

Aftershock

From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America.
More than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the Haitian quake, its effects rippled through Boston's teeming Haitian community
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 22, 2010

Covering a tragedy

The earthquake that ravaged Haiti on January 12 posed a major challenge for the Boston Haitian Reporter , the lone English-language outlet focused on Boston's sizable Haitian community. The quake and its aftermath were of vital interest to the Report
How does a small local paper cover the world's biggest story?
By ADAM REILLY | January 22, 2010

Through a glass darkly

Predicting a Super Bowl winner doesn't make you a genius: after all, given a pool of 32 teams, one of them is bound to capture the trophy. But predicting the future for an industry that's been buffeted by new technologies and economic vicissitudes, and
Forecasting the media year to come
By ADAM REILLY | January 08, 2010

Photos: Most popular slideshows of 2009

Our most popular slideshows from the last year: including Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Dale Bozzio's crazy cat house, and much more.
Don't blame us. You clicked on them!
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 25, 2009

Fourth-estate follies, 2009 edition

Between the rise of the Web, the ADD-addling of America, the fragmentation of any national political consensus, and the devastated economy, working in the press can feel a bit like manning the Titanic — and this year, the entire industry seemed to te
The Phoenix's second annual year in media malfeasance
By ADAM REILLY | December 25, 2009

Battle of the Bulger

Earlier this fall, with almost no fanfare, Beverly-based Commonwealth Editions published a new biography of Boston's archetypal politician — James Michael Curley: A Short Biography with Personal Reminiscences — written by former Massachusetts Senate pr
Former Mass. Sen. Pres. William Bulger defends James Michael Curley's legacy — and his own
By ADAM REILLY | December 18, 2009

Photos: Most popular articles of 2009

The stories you couldn't not read this year
The year in martyrs, mortuaries, chupacabras, and pot-peddling soccer moms
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 18, 2009

2009: The year in Phoenix blog posts

Our most popular blog posts from 2009
Michael Jackson, meteors, WBCN, and one very angry Obama
By PHOENIX STAFF | December 18, 2009

The Globe's biggest union expels its head

What a difference six months make.
Union Blues Dept.
By ADAM REILLY | December 11, 2009

Goal rush!

Get two journalists in a room these days, and before the conversation is five minutes old they'll probably be kvetching about the grim state of the news business. Unless, that is, they happen to be sports journalists, in which case the conversation wil
How long can Boston's frenetic sports-media explosion last?
By ADAM REILLY | December 04, 2009

Unmaking a bad federal law

It's been a depressing stretch for supporters of marriage equality.
Justice for Some
By ADAM REILLY | November 27, 2009

Holy terror?

On the afternoon of November 5, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan walked into a building at Fort Hood, the sprawling military base in central Texas; sat briefly in solitary silence; and then opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol, shooting roughly a hundred
Cutting through the muddled thinking about Nidal Malik Hasan's faith and its role in the Fort Hood shootings
By ADAM REILLY | November 13, 2009

Collateral damage?

Was Hasan suffering from PTSD?
Was Hasan suffering from PTSD?
By ADAM REILLY | November 13, 2009

Difference of opinion

It’s been three months since Peter Canellos replaced Renée Loth as editor of the Boston Globe ’s editorial page.
Peter Canellos reinvents Globe ’s editorial page. Plus, Tom Menino’s campaign gets late-breaking help from the Banner and Herald .
By ADAM REILLY | November 06, 2009

The importance of being Ernie

Media feuds don’t come any nastier than the metastasizing spat between Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr and one “Ernie Boch III,” the pseudonymous blogger at the liberal Web site Blue Mass. Group. (Note: the blogger is no relation to the car dealer.)
What drives Howie Carr’s anonymous tormentor?
By ADAM REILLY | October 16, 2009

Latter day taint

Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck was a small-market DJ with a drinking problem, no friends, and bleak professional prospects. Today, he’s a Fox News superstar averaging 2.4 million viewers, an inexorably successful author, and the leader of a popular movem
How Glenn Beck is driven by Mormonism — and why his fellow faithful (including Mitt Romney) should be worried
By ADAM REILLY | October 09, 2009

Philadelphia Story

The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backin
What Steve Taylor needs to know if he succeeds in buying the Globe
By ADAM REILLY | October 02, 2009

Menino's junked mail

Two years ago, when I wrote a column griping about the Boston media's apathy-inducing disinterest in city politics, Boston Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told me his paper had given the lackluster 2007 elections as much coverage as they deserved, b
The Globe ratchets up the intensity in Boston's mayoral race. Plus, the Times Co. gets some love from the Globe newsroom and BU books blowhard Bill O'Reilly.
By ADAM REILLY | September 18, 2009

Blowhard, interrupted

Former Red Sox great Curt Schilling isn't the only prospective US Senate candidate agonizing over whether to run for Ted Kennedy's old seat. But unlike some of his potential rivals the Bloody Socked One seems determined to share his Hamlet act with the
If Curt Schilling runs for Senate, will he keep his sports-media perch?
By ADAM REILLY | September 11, 2009

The end of the affair?

During Mitt Romney's failed bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, he demonstrated a potent knack for wooing the conservative commentariat.
Mitt Romney's right-wing-media problem. Plus, Michael Bloomberg's blind spot.
By ADAM REILLY | August 28, 2009

Defaming Twitter

Hate Twitter? Then you're probably loving a new, buzz-generating study — released last week by the Texas market-research firm Pear Analytics — which found that the vast majority of Twitter messages, a/k/a tweets, are pretty much worthless.
Illogic and Cronyism Dept.
By ADAM REILLY | August 21, 2009

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