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Posted by: kwflatbed

Extra, extra! Read all about the mayor
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Saturday, January 13, 2007



Mayor Thomas M. Menino is big, big news at City Hall.


It’s all the mayor that’s fit to print.

City Hall is jumping into the Boston media market with its own newspaper, which some are already dubbing the “Tommy Times.”
And, based on its first issue, the new Boston City Communicator is dedicated to promoting Mayor Thomas M. Menino.


The mayor is mentioned in 25 of the 30 articles in the quarterly’s first edition, which is filled with glowing stories about big development proposals and various city programs. And if you still miss the point, Menino’s photo is on 11 of the paper’s 20 handsome, full-color pages.

There’s even a column by the mayor headlined: “Communicating our good news.”
But Dot Joyce, Menino’s press secretary, defended the Menino pictures, saying they simply reflect the mayor’s energetic, get-out-to-the-neighborhoods, approach.
“He is everywhere, you know,” Joyce said.
Some are less than amused, though.
The money spent on the venture - likely tens of thousands a year - might be better spent on initiatives to reach out to vulnerable youths in crime-torn city neighborhoods, argued one-time mayoral challenger Maura Hennigan.
City officials declined to detail the cost of the publication, which is put out by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and paid for by two local banks. The paper is distributed as an insert in local weeklies and at local banks.
The new media venture comes as the mayor takes heat in the local press for a mounting murder toll, rising mortgage foreclosures and a series of controversial development proposals.
It also adds to a growing media empire of sorts. The city already has its own cable channel and publishes the Educator, which doles out school news with heavy doses of the mayor.
“He is becoming the Rupert Murdoch of the Boston media,” said City Councilor John Tobin.
If nothing else, the Boston City Communicator, as Menino’s newspaper is known, appears to be taking the art of mayoral spin to a new level, starting on the front page, which features one of the mayor’s pet projects, “Tommy’s Tower.”
Inside, there are roughly 70 references in various articles to the mayor or Menino by name. There are pictures of Menino eating a hot dog, dining on sushi or simply looking on as others talk.
The focus on the mayor leaves little room for other city leaders, as Tobin, the councilor from Charlestown, found.
He opened up the paper’s first issue to find he had been cut out of the picture of the mayor eating sushi, even though he was across the table.
“I didn’t make the cut,” Tobin said.

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Posted by: Mitpo62

"Mumbles"......oh, I love that!

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