Democracy requires public control of social media giants In this edition of DigBoston, our Editor-in-Chief Chris Faraone has already written at some length about how Medium—which is essentially a glorified blog farm with a puzzlingly opaque social media component—screwed our nonprofit, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), a few days back by […]
TERROR AT 50 FEET
Acrimony over Seaport gondola plan speaks to need for expanded MBTA service Much ink has been spilled in the Boston press over a plan by luxury developer Millennium Partners and its subsidiary Cargo Ventures to spend $100 million to build an aerial gondola system from South Station up Summer Street across Fort Point […]
‘SELF AND OTHER’
The necessity of an international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons Recent comments by the leaders of the United States and North Korea have reignited public concern about the danger of nuclear war. The Nobel Peace Prize was given this past year to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. At the dawn of […]
SEA LEVEL RISE IS JUST ONE OF BOSTON’S WORRIES
As Earth approaches several catastrophic global warming “tipping points” Before writing more columns examining Boston city government’s emerging plans to cope with the effects of global warming, I think a quick review of what area residents are likely to face in the coming decades is in order. Because it’s important to disabuse people of […]
THE SEAPORT FLOOD IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Unless Boston builds proper defenses against global warming-driven sea level rise So, Boston’s Seaport District flooded early this month during a bad snowstorm in the midst of several days of arctic temperatures. And nobody could be less surprised than me. Because I’ve spent a lot of the last quarter century closely following developments […]
ON MAKERSPACES AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Making can be cool, but conscious making is cooler For many of us living in and around Boston in recent years, it has become common to see lots of communications from makerspaces around holiday time. Which is totally understandable. Such creative centers produce neat things year-round, so it’s only natural that their members […]
A NOTE OF APPRECIATION TO OUR GOOD FRIENDS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES…
The timing couldn’t have been better. No sooner did this publication release last week’s editorial announcing our “unnaming” policy of refusing to print the names of ultra-right wing leaders and organizations, than the Gray Lady provided the best possible example of the type of reporting we think American news organizations need to stop producing […]
ANNOUNCING THE DIGBOSTON ‘UNNAMING’ POLICY
Doing our part to shut down the ultra right As journalists, my DigBoston colleagues and I have a responsibility to do our best to cover news of the day fairly and accurately. And that’s based on our abiding belief in practising ethical journalism. Even though we’re street reporters for an alternative urban news weekly—a […]
SAFE SPACE SOCIALISM
Is identity politics running wild in Boston DSA? In 1979, I attended a meeting in Boston between the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). Its purpose was to explore a possible merger between the two organizations. DSOC, which came from a split in the old Socialist Party, was […]
GENERAL ELECTRIC FAIL
Conglomerate’s woes throw Boston HQ deal contradictions into bold relief What a surprise. General Electric is tanking, and the scheme to bring the multinational’s headquarters to Boston is looking worse by the day. And whom shall the public blame if that once-secret deal cut by Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh in […]
