“Somebody said at the protest, ‘Money has memory.’ And, we have to think about where our money comes from, because money is not given to MIT with no strings attached, right?”
THE EPSTEIN STENCH
We can’t just hold our noses and look away from academia’s dirty money The 2018 Disobedience Award ceremony was a full MIT Media Lab spectacle. Carefully produced, lavishly catered, part of the lab itself turned into a dance club for a late-night party, this was the lab’s way of using all its prestige […]
MORE REASONS TO RESIGN FROM THE MIT MEDIA LAB
The connection to Jeffrey Epstein is just one of many questionable relationships Recently, two scholars announced their plans to cut ties with the MIT Media Lab over its longstanding relationship with Jeffrey Epstein—the New York financier who had been arrested on federal charges for the alleged sex trafficking of minors in Florida and […]
DON’T BUY WHAT CAMBRIDGE MAYOR MCGOVERN IS SELLING
An East Cambridge courthouse update It’s sad when a local public official claims powerlessness before real estate developers, the market, and state government. But that’s exactly what Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern is doing in the latest round of the already half-century long East Cambridge Courthouse saga. Which I wrote about in some detail […]
THE RIGHT QUESTION FOR THE BROAD LEFT
On July 5, start asking the Democrats, “What policies will help working families?” The patriotic season is upon us. With it comes the arrival of the 2020 presidential race—far too early, in my estimation. Which in turn tends to generate conservative political ripples all the way down to the local level in the […]
CAMBRIDGE COUNCILORS CAN STOP UNDEMOCRATIC COURTHOUSE DEAL
Four votes against the proposed leasing of city parking spaces should do the trick
LANDLORDS’ VIEWS ON RENT CONTROL… REFUTED
Or: fun with Boston Globe comments Most everyone has had the experience of reading something particularly enraging in the comment area below many online newspaper articles. I think it’s quite normal to feel frustrated and helpless in that situation. Because the nastiest opinions often appear to be the most popular ones. And there […]
NONPROFIT MODEL NOT A PANACEA FOR AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA
Would-be reformers need to keep that in mind A couple of weeks ago I wrote a column about a bill (S. 80) filed with the Mass legislature by Rep. Lori Ehrlich (D – Marblehead) and Sen. Brendan Crighton (D – Lynn) that aims to start a volunteer commission to assess the state of local […]
IT’S TIME TO BRING BACK RENT CONTROL IN MASSACHUSETTS
Some cause for hope in new tenant protection legislation being filed at the State House Yesterday, I saw some good news in the local press. A rarity to be sure. The Boston Globe reported that Rep. Mike Connolly and a coalition of other state legislators are about to file a rent control bill. […]
PROPOSED STATE JOURNALISM COMMISSION NEEDS BROADER MEMBERSHIP
More working journalists, less elite institutes Chris Faraone,* John Loftus,** and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to rebuild American journalism. Pretty much from the ground up, since so many news outlets and jobs in the field have been destroyed in the last quarter century. And a growing number of […]
