Free Republic

Is this the Boston Globe’s “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment? (See Big Journalism’s header, above, for the memorable Chicago Tribune goof.) The Hub’s ultra-liberal broadsheet today “inadvertently” posted an interactive election-results dummy on its website, boston.com — which, amazingly, forecast a Coakley victory. Queried by the Boston Phoenix, the city’s alternative newspaper, a spokesman for the Globe replied: AP was testing an election data feed to its Massachusetts clients. During corresponding tests at our end, the feed of AP’s hypothetical test data was inadvertently posted for a few minutes on a single subsection page within our site. As soon as the...

Not so fast. In a premature online Dewey beats Truman moment, boston.com today posted an online map of Massachusetts voting results declaring Attorney General Martha Coakley the winner of today’s special U.S. Senate election. Whoops.

Boston Globe writer Lisa Wangsness can't be blamed too much for assuming that appointed senator Paul Kirk's term ends when the winner of tomorrow's election in Massachusetts, Scott Brown (photo) or Martha Coakley, is seated. Wrong. Mass. law is very specific on that term limit as Fred Barnes has noted in the Weekly Standard. The reason why Wangsness can be forgiven for her error is that it is the same assumption made by most of the rest of the mainstream media. Here is the relevant section of her article about the effect of tomorrow's election on the health care bill:...

Independent voters in Massachusetts are an unpredictable breed and downright ornery when times are bad. On Tuesday, they will determine who will be the state’s next US senator in a race too close to call, capturing the nation’s attention because the fate of a national health care overhaul hangs in the balance. Termed unenrolled voters because they are not affiliated with a party, independents constitute a majority of the registered voters in the state. Republicans, outnumbered by Democrats by more than 3 to 1, need to capture a huge majority of independents and a slice of moderate and conservative Democrats...

Reality intrudes... on the Democrat-media bubble. Adam Nagourney in The New York Times: As Mr. Obama prepares to come here on Sunday to campaign for the party’s beleaguered Senate candidate, Martha Coakley, Democrats across the country are starting to wonder aloud if they misjudged the electorate over the last year, with profound ramifications for the midterm elections this year and, potentially, for Mr. Obama’s presidency. Pity the poor Democrats. It's so easy to "misjudge" when you read The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

Give Greg Sargent credit over at the Plum Line blog for a good catch here.  Read the following exchange, for which Sargent will have audio shortly, and see what it means to you: QUESTION: “Scott, what do you think about the Tea Party movement and what they are trying to do?”SCOTT BROWN: “I am not quite sure what you are talking about, what are they trying to do?”QUESTION: “The anti-smaller government, sort of anti-establishment organization that is trying to take over the country.”SCOTT BROWN: “Taking over the country. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration.”QUESTION: “Well, they...

Sheesh, what has the world come to if you can't trust the Boston Globe? Over the last day or so, we've been reporting how Mass GOP senate candidate Scott Brown said he was unfamiliar with the "Tea Party Movement", notwithstanding their campaigning for him and now lots of photos and video of his addressing Tea Party events. But it seems like the original report in the Boston Globe was just wrong, or at least way overwritten. The Brown campaign has now provided us with the audio of the exchange the report was based on. And as is often the case,...

A reporter trying to question Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley was involved in a scuffle with one of her aides. John McCormack of the Weekly Standard fell Tuesday night as he tried to speak with the Democrat while simultaneously videotaping her and trying to pass a metal grate on a Washington sidewalk. Photos and video of the incident show Coakley aide Michael Meehan trying to help McCormack up. A scuffle broke out as Meehan tried to block McCormack and determine if he was an operative of a rival campaign. Coakley is seen ignoring McCormack. The trip prompted criticism, since Coakley...

Showing a 15-point lead for Democrat Martha Coakley, a Globie poll that had become the worst-kept secret in town was finally published in today’s paper. Once again, UNH was its partner. While other surveys showing a horse race with Republican Scott Brown could prove optimistic, we know The Globies can’t be trusted and are up to their usual tricks...

IT IS ONE OF those moments when I feel like a time traveler. I look out the airplane window and watch a young woman on the tarmac directing our jet to its gate. As she waves the signals, I fall into a silent, familiar reverie: “I remember when.’’ What I remember, of course, is a time when no woman would have been hired for this “man’s job.’’ What I remember is when my generation opened the door for hers. If I talked to her about the old days, I wonder, would she listen as politely as if I were talking...

It seems that the flat out health care flip-flop performed recently by Massachusetts Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate was too hypocritically self serving for even the very liberal Boston Globe to spin in a way to make her look good. Either it was that or the fact that that they aren't worried about how such a story would affect Coakley's chances in the special election on January 19 since it is widely assumed that a win in the Democrat primary leads automatically to a coronation in the general election in that liberal state. Whatever the case, Boston Globe writer...

Congratulations Massachussets! You have just chosen the person last night who will succeed the late Ted Kennedy in his senate seat. The Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson declared the winner a week ago on December 3 in this story, Coakley gets the keys to the Senate: MARTHA COAKLEY will be the state’s next US senator. Michael Capuano handed her the keys to the late Ted Kennedy’s office by getting caught up in one last dumb shouting match with the sure loser in the race, Stephen Pagliuca. One can only imagine the smile inside Coakley’s head as Capuano and Pagliuca descended...

After months of hunting for a buyer, The New York Times Company said on Wednesday that it had decided not to sell The Boston Globe, the newspaper it threatened last spring to close because of mounting losses. The Globe did not draw high bids, and the company chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said last month that the paper’s finances had improved enough that the company no longer believed it had to sell if the offers were not attractive enough. Executives said this year that the paper was on track to lose $85 million in 2009, before making painful cost cuts that...

....Platinum has replaced or laid off six of the Union-Tribune’s top eight managers since taking over, and it cut 18 percent, or 192 people, of the staff three days after the deal was completed. It has also hired consultants to monitor the productivity of reporters and editors and is looking to rent out the top two floors of the newspaper’s headquarters.

The Boston Globe will soon begin charging for its Web site, publisher P. Steven Ainsley told the paper’s union bosses yesterday as the Globe’s parent New York Times [NYT] Co. confirmed in a regulatory filing that the money-losing Hub broadsheet is for sale. News of the Globe’s intention to charge for Boston.com came a day after News Corp. [NWS] Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced his company would start charging for content at all of its news Web sites, including the New York Post, The Times of London and The Sun, a popular British tabloid. News Corp. already charges for some access...

(UPDATE: The Boston Globe has now posted what it calls a redacted revised docket although it is described as a "police report" on its site. And redacted it certainly is since it has redacted out almost the entire narrative section of the original report. To read the full highly revealing narrative, check out the original police report.)

A little tip for anyone who gets stopped by a police officer for a possible traffic violation. Be polite. Very polite. Even if you think you were wrongly stopped, do not under any circumstances start yelling at the police officer. Follow this advice and your chances of being given a traffic ticket, instead of just a warning, go way down. The same applies for any encounter with a police officer because the surest way to get yourself arrested is to act act arrogantly and aggressively when questioned. Whatever you do, do not act like the arrestee in the Henry Louis...

BOSTON — The Boston Globe’s owners have postponed a deadline for potential buyers of the newspaper to submit their initial bids. The New York Times [NYT] Co., which owns the Globe, had set a Wednesday deadline for nonbinding bids. But the Globe reports Tuesday that Goldman Sachs & Co., the investment banking firm hired to manage the sale, has told interested parties they will be given more time to prepare offers for the Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Former advertising executive Jack Connors and private equity investor Stephen Pagliuca have joined forces to prepare for a potential bid to buy The Boston Globe, according to people briefed on the sales process. This week the two got approval from the Globe’s owner, The New York Times Co., to team up for a potential bid, the sources said. Connors and Pagliuca had been weighing separate bids for New England’s largest daily. Nondisclosure agreements had stipulated bidders could not work together, but the two sought permission to collaborate. As that team and at least one rival local group craft preliminary bids,...

Talks between the Boston Globe's largest union and management wrapped up around 4 a.m. today, after two marathon sessions in two days failed to resolve disagreement over how to achieve $10 million in cuts. Globe spokesman Robert Powers said that talks are tentatively scheduled to resume next Monday. Boston Newspaper Guild president Dan Totten released a statement early Wednesday saying, "We are optimistic about the prospects for reaching an agreement after our most recent talks with the Company. The discussions will continue today." The two sides are scheduled to talk informally by phone today, with formal negotiations resuming next week....