Beat the Press

The city's daily papers strain for significance in reporting on the debut of two shows on NESN, home of the Red Sox and the Bruins. The programs are "Shining City," to be hosted by former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, and "After the Game," co-produced by Linda Pizzuti Henry.

First up is Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald, who reported on the new programs (sub. req.) on Aug. 13. Although Heslam's account of Healey's innovation-and-technology show and Henry's sports-celebrity program was pretty straightforward, she also wrote:

"Shining City" rolls out as NESN, the flagship station for the Boston Red Sox, beefs up its lifestyle programming. The network has lost 36 percent of its viewers from last year as the injury-plagued Sox struggled this season.

Today the Globe's Johnny Diaz goes one better than Heslam by not simply laying out the fact that Red Sox ratings are slipping, but also tying it all together with a neat bow. He writes:

The shows, called “After The Game" and “Shining City," are an attempt by the station to reach new viewers who aren’t necessarily sports fans but who may watch entertainment and science-related shows, as the network’s bread-and-butter programming — baseball games — is declining.

I believe this is called the "if-then fallacy."

Here is the fundamental problem: It's not as though Healey and Henry are going to pre-empt Red Sox games, or even the pre-game and post-game shows. Healey's program will cablecast on Fridays at 4:30 p.m., followed by something called "Pocket Money" at 5 and then "After the Game" at 5:30. There will be plenty of repetitions during the week as well, but NESN will continue to offer a one-hour pre-game show, and Tom Caron will keep right on yelling at you as soon as the game is over.

It's not that Red Sox ratings aren't down. They are. But that is irrelevant to the debut of two new programs in time slots that don't crowd any Sox-related programming. The Sox are still one of the biggest televisions draws in New England, as Diaz himself notes: "Five Red Sox games last week ranked among the top 10 most-watched shows in Boston."

So why try to tie the new shows to declining baseball ratings? Because the urge to come up with an interesting story line — a narrative — is irresistible. Even when there is none.

Is it the "Ground Zero Mosque," the "mosque near Ground Zero," or the "Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan two blocks from Ground Zero?" And should it be this big a deal? In covering the story, the media has had to deal with partisan bandwagon jumpers, hate-mongering bloggers, and balancing constitutional rights with "sensitivity" to 9/11 victims' families.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. gave a cool $1 million to the Republicans in June, but zilch to the Democrats. With his Fox News network salivating over every primary election return leading up to and including this November's mid-terms, some say the Aussie mogul has managed to rip away whatever tattered shards of "fair & balanced" cred Fox had left. Others are shrugging, though, saying it's just the way the news business - like any other business - does business.

Before I get to the today's topics, I'd just like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Hiatus. That's right, "Greater Boston" and BTP are going into "Best of ..." mode for the next two weeks. We're back on Sept. 1oth on TV, but the blogging will continue as always.

Here's what we're working on for today:

Unholy War: Is it the "Ground Zero Mosque," the "mosque near Ground Zero," or the "Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan two blocks from Ground Zero?" And should it be this big a deal? In covering the story, the media has had to deal with partisan bandwagon jumpers, hate-mongering bloggers, and balancing constitutional rights with "sensitivity" to 9/11 victims' families.

Bully Pulpit: Emily Bazelon, the Slate writer and bullying contrarian, is at it again. This time she's written a new piece alleging that Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley teen who committed suicide after being bullied by other high school students, was herself a bully years earlier back in Ireland. To which some are saying: "So what?"

Fox and Friends: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. gave a cool $1 million to the Republicans in June, but zilch to the Democrats. With his Fox News network salivating over every primary election return leading up to and including this November's mid-terms, some say the Aussie mogul has managed to rip away whatever tattered shards of "fair & balanced" cred Fox had left. Others are shrugging, though, saying it's just the way the news business - like any other business - does business.

Plus Panel Peeves (of course.)

The panel: Emily hosting, Callie, Kara Miller sitting in for Dan, Margery Eagan in the Joe Sciacca Memorial Barcalounger, and Phillip Martin in the guest panelist seat.

Two years ago, the Phoenix newspapers bestowed one of their annual Muzzle Awards on Comcast for firing Barry Nolan (photo), the Boston-based host of "Backstage," which appeared locally on CN8.

Nolan's apparent offense: speaking out against a decision by the National Academy of Arts & Sciences to present a coveted Governors Award to Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly. Nolan showed up at the Boston Emmy Awards to protest the choice.

"I got fired for saying demonstrably true things in a roomful of news people that people agreed with," Nolan told me at the time. "Which tells you more, I think, about the times we live in than about the idiosyncrasies of somebody at Comcast."

Now, at long last, Nolan's story — and his $1.2 million wrongful-termination suit against Comcast — is getting a full airing. Earlier this week, the Columbia Journalism Review posted on its website a 2,700-word story by veteran Boston journalist Terry Ann Knopf. The chief revelation: a "carefully worded, lawyerly letter" from O'Reilly to Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts in which O'Reilly said he considered Nolan's one-man crusade to be "outrageous behavior" and "a disturbing situation." O'Reilly wrote:

We at "The O’Reilly Factor" have always considered Comcast to be an excellent business partner and I believe the same holds true for the entire Fox News Channel. Therefore, it was puzzling to see a Comcast employee, Barry Nolan, use Comcast corporate assets to attack me and FNC.

Now, it's true that Nolan publicly referred to O'Reilly as "a mental case." But the fact that O'Reilly would reach out to crush a critic who was in no position to do him any real harm only serves to underscore his reputation for bullying people. It's even more disturbing that Comcast, which is now trying to acquire NBC, would cave.

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The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester began charging for online content today. It's a move widely seen as a test run for the New York Times, which plans to start charging for Web access next year, and whose parent company also owns the T&G (as well as the Boston Globe).

The T&G model, explained in a memo from publisher Bruce Gaultney and editor Leah Lamson, is fairly complex, as the Times model reportedly will be. Here are the basics:

• Print subscribers will have full access to Telegram.com for no additional charge.
• Non-subscribers will be able to access up to 10 local stories per month without paying. But they will have to register.
• Non-subscribers who wish to access more than 10 local stories will have to pay $14.95 per month or $1 for a day pass.
• Some Web content will remain free, including breaking-news stories.

Will the plan succeed? It depends on your definition of success. It may bolster print circulation, or at least slow its decline. The tiered pricing system is clearly aimed at non-subscribers who make heavy use of the website. Anyone who's thinking about dropping his print subscription will now have a good reason not to do so.

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