“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 POLITICAL MOVEMENT TO COME
How Cambridge can put public need before private greed A five-hour city council hearing can really get you thinking. As I sat watching the latest chapter in the East Cambridge courthouse saga unfold at city hall on Monday, I mulled over what it would take to start moving the city away from dependence […]
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 […]
TOO MANY COPS
Some thoughts about last Saturday’s counterprotest It’s Labor Day as I start this column and I don’t want to labor too much on it, but I think it’s important to reflect upon a particular aspect of Saturday’s counterprotest against an ultra right-wing “parade” that hasn’t gotten nearly as much press attention as it […]
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 […]
EDITORIAL: DIGBOSTON JOINS MOVEMENT TO SLOW GLOBAL WARMING
Calls for regional consortium of news outlets to improve and expand climate change coverage Last month, during the fearsome heat wave that saw Boston temperatures soar to 98 degrees Fahrenheit for two days in a row, 400 chickens died in New Hampshire. According to the Boston Globe, they succumbed to “heatstroke at […]
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 […]
NO MOONSHOT REQUIRED
Can a neoliberal columnist for a billionaire’s newspaper understand that a better MBTA is possible if we tax the rich (and make public transportation truly public)? It’s hardly a secret that I’m no fan of Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung’s writing on matters political and economic. Which clearly reflects her belief that bringing […]
SECOND HEARING ON MA JOURNALISM COMMISSION BILL A SUCCESS
Over 80 journalists, journalism students, and professors answer DigBoston’s call to turn out Amazingly, I’m on my first real vacation in four years this week. But I think it’s important to pen a truncated version of my usual column to thank the 80 plus people (about half of whom were journalism students… yay!) […]
GIVE MA JOURNALISM COMMISSION SEATS TO WORKING JOURNALISTS
This week, I joined fellow journalists, journalism educators, and members of the public at large in testifying on a bill to form a Mass journalism commission that is currently before the state legislature. In view of the potential importance of the initiative, my column this week is simply the text of my testimony. For […]
