Rendering of New Balance's Proposed Development

A Brighton resident got a postcard with this picture in the mail today and forwarded it on to me. It's an artist/architect's rendering of the large development at Brighton Landing that New Balance is expected to put forward at a community meeting next week.

The view is looking east; the Mass Pike runs up from the lower right corner of the picture. I've labeled the various features in the image -- the red text is mine, not New Balance's.

The crossing of the Mass Pike looks to be more like a pedestrian bridge lined up with Litchfield Street -- not a flyover with on- and off-ramps -- which connects the proposed new development at Brighton Landing to the new Charlesview project a few blocks further north. Litchfield has residential buildings on its west side, light commercial on its east.

According to at least one source who was briefed on New Balance's plans, their presentation included an additional flyover with looping ramps that is not included in this artist's rendering.


Note: post was updated to clarify the issue of pedestrian bridge versus on-/off-ramp flyover.

Musical Signature of WCRB-WGBH Conversion

Monday morning I flipped through the radio stations and heard the unmistakable sounds of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in a. It was my first indication that 24-hour classical music station WCRB is really being bought by WGBH to continue as a 24-hour classical station -- but with WGBH's broader mix of music, not WCRB's mostly light classical (all Vivaldi and Mozart, all the time).

The Boston Globe reported this morning that the Federal Communications Commission approved the $14 million purchase of the station last week -- although the WGBH format is not supposed to change until December 1 and WCRB announcers have yet to move to the Brighton studios.

WCRB's annoying stamp, er, "branding," on their station was still in evidence Monday: the piano trio's conclusion was immediately followed by a chirpy-voiced, "Casual, comfortable classical."

No. This piano trio is neither casual nor comfortable. It is dark, tragic, dramatic, and pathos-ridden -- written in memory of the great 19th century Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein who had died in the preceding year.

I'll be delighted when WCRB transitions to WGBH musical fare like this piano trio but drops the idiotic branding verbiage.


Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in a, Op.50, 1st movement, played by Sviatoslav Richter (piano), Oleg Kagan (violin), and Natalya Gutman ('cello).

Bye-Bye Brain Injury Ads for Children

Looks like Brighton's WGBH is buying the all-classical commercial radio station WCRB. And plans to turn it into an all-classical non-commercial radio station.

Wahoo! No more repeated advertisements for the "Brain Injury Institute" broadcast during Saturday morning "Kid's Classical Hour." And I won't have to answer the question, "Dad, what's a brain injury?"

Brighton Lowe's Redivivus

Last year Lowe's proposed a 200,000 square foot box store for Brighton Landing -- a location next to the Massachusetts Turnpike, yet about as far from a turnpike exit as it could possibly be.

The traffic study they conducted as part of the Boston Redevelopment Authority's review of their proposal showed so much added traffic on nearby streets that Mayor Thomas Menino opposed their proposal. Brighton Landing neighbors like New Balance opposed the proposal, too, based on the excessive traffic it would generate on shared Guest Street.

Now Lowe's is back with a proposal that looks very similar to the previous one: same location (albeit with 1.1 extra acres from a newly-available adjacent lot); slightly reduced in floor space (by around 20%); and the same traffic data.

What gives?


Switching Traffic Metrics

The proponents have decided to toss out the traffic metrics in the previous study, which was an increase in traffic volume of up to 150% on nearby streets. Lowe's engineering consultants are now focusing on a new traffic metric, the reduction in the trip time along major streets in the neighborhood.

They claim that construction of their proposed, big box store will reduce average trip times along Market Street by 13-28% and along North Beacon Street by 3-11%.

Huh? If there is more traffic on nearby streets, shouldn't this mean that it would take longer to go anywhere by car?

Not if Lowe's paid $1.2 million up front, prior to any approvals for construction of the store, in order to improve traffic signals in the area by synchronizing them. Lowe's insists that they will put a condition on their construction that they must first demonstrate a reduction in trip time from the signal improvements to Market Street and North Beacon Street.

A few years ago when New Balance moved their corporate offices to Brighton Landing, attendees at Thursday night's meeting of the Brighton Allston Improvement Association recalled, they promised to improve the signals on those same two streets. But nothing happened, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority never seemed to hold them accountable.

They said that WGBH then built their new nuclear aircraft carrier building at Brighton Landing, and promised as part of the approval process to make signal improvements on the same streets. Again nothing happened, and again the BRA didn't seem to hold the developer accountable.

Against this backdrop of "fool me twice, shame on you; fool me thrice, shame on me" the BAIA attendees were mostly skeptical Thursday of Lowe's proposal and whether or not traffic improvements would ever be installed in the neighborhood. A representative of New Balance expressed negative opinions about Lowe's substantial impact on, and proposed reconfiguration of, Guest Street, which were not discussed at the meeting.

Dick Marques, President of the BAIA, got the last laugh when he asked the New Balance representative, "Wasn't New Balance one of the causes of this traffic mess?"


Few Changes Evident in New Proposal

There are some small changes in Lowe's new proposal over the previous one. The square footage for the sales floor has been reduced by nearly 20%. A 1.1 acre part of a 2.5 acre adjacent parcel, currently used by Briggs, would be used in order to move large truck unloading further off of Guest Street. The owner of the Briggs parcel has apparently expressed a willingness to talk with the city about using the 1.4 remaining acres for a possible commuter rail station -- although the audience had to instruct the Lowe's representatives that commuter rail isn't under the jurisdiction of any city agency.

The new traffic caused by the new proposal is also reduced by 25% from their previous proposal, but it was unclear how much of that reduced traffic resulted from the fortuitous relocation of Briggs from the area rather than the revised Lowe's store proposal itself. Those previous traffic numbers, by the way, had themselves been reduced by 33% during the course of the BRA review -- not by new traffic data, but by a stroke of the pen which magically declared that 50% rather than 25% of the traffic would already be driving in the area on other errands.

Lowe's has come to the community with essentially the same proposal, the same traffic data, and essentially the same traffic study -- just repackaged to make it look better.

The news is that Lowe's now plans to sell lipstick.


Want To Collect Data?

Lowe's traffic engineering consultants claim that it currently takes 14.4 minutes to travel along Market Street from Washington Street to Lincoln Street during morning rush hour, and the reverse trip during evening rush hour takes 17.6 minutes. They also claim that travel on North Beacon Street from Market Street to Union Square takes 10.2 minutes eastbound during morning rush hour or 15.0 minutes westbound during evening rush hour.

While traffic along those streets are heavy, those times sound excessive.

If you travel along those route during your morning / evening commute, consider timing your trip between those two cross streets and post it as a comment below. Please note the direction of travel (north/morning vs. south/evening for Market Street; east/morning vs. west/evening for North Beacon Street), time of day, and time elapsed.

Bicycle commuter times not allowed: bicycles can travel those route much faster than cars at that time of day while still obeying all traffic laws.


Image of pigs by abbey*christine provided through a Creative Commons license.

Between the Lions in Oak Square Wednesday

Leona the Lion will make an appearance in Oak Square next Wednesday afternoon featuring songs and stories. The Leona character appears on the PBS/WGBH show, "Between the Lions." The event is being organized by the Presentation School Foundation.

DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

TIME: Leona Performance at 2:00 pm
Activities & Snacks at 3:00 pm

LOCATION: Oak Square YMCA, 615 Washington Street, Brighton, MA 02135

The event was rescheduled after snow caused its cancellation in February. African lions are not particularly fond of snow.

WGBH Blogger-Critic Turns Blogger

While it was the media-celebrity layoffs in the WBZ newsroom made news this week, over at public broadcaster WGBH they are suffering, too.

First, news that WGBH's short-term borrowing has recently become more expensive due to the credit crisis:

WGBH [uses] "variable" bonds whose rates reset every week based on certain bond indexes, often tied to complex "swap" agreements that also have proven volatile. The station has borrowed $124 million since 2002 for items including its glamorous new [nuclear aircraft carrier] headquarters in Brighton and to buy a radio frequency in the Brewster area...

Lately its borrowing costs have risen as high as 9 percent, from around 3 percent last year, adding an additional $100,000 or so to its borrowing costs - each week...

"Sadly, first and foremost where the impact will come is on our ability to expand," WGBH chief executive Jonathan C. Abbott said. The most likely candidates are special onetime editions of public affairs programs, Abbott said; he doesn't anticipate having to cut any of WGBH's existing shows.

Today we see that WGBH's own media-celebrity, Emily Rooney of Greater Boston, has started blogging. She says she's filling in for Jeff Keating, whose extended leave resulted in no postings since February. "We too suffer from staff shortages and lack of resources," blogger Rooney writes.

Rooney and several of her regular guests on the "Beat the Press" Friday edition of Greater Boston are often quick to criticize blogging and bloggers. (I wish WGBH posted the old videos so that I could dig out the PJs reference.) The burden to set the record straight about blogging often falls upon Dan Kennedy, himself the author of Media Nation blog, or occasionally John Carroll.

Rooney is clearly learning the ropes of this citizen journalism thing. First she puts up a blank post, then two minutes later she submitted another post. Fortunately, the second post had content, although it was littered with grammatical errors, a misspelling, and no paragraph breaks. But -- Hey! -- she was probably posting it from the basement of her parents' house while wearing PJs, and the wireless signal might not be so good down there next to the boiler. I surmise that Rooney's distaste for the medium has something to do with her sloppy initial foray into blogging. Next I expect Kennedy will explain to Rooney how she needs to learn how to shoot, edit, and post video all by herself to stay current in the new journalism world.

I hope Rooney's new experiment with the medium leads her to a greater appreciation of it. Welcome to the blogging world, Ms. Rooney! Remember: double carriage return for a paragraph break! (Kennedy had to teach his Northeastern students this lesson, too.) And don't forget to edit your writing before posting, because this blogging thing ain't all that much different from your regular gig.

WGBH Community Advisory Board Meeting Monday at 5:30 pm

The WGBH Community Advisory Board holds its bi-monthly business meeting Monday night at 5:30 pm, which is open to the public.

WGBH Community Advisory Board
5:30 - 7:30 pm
Cahners Conference Room
1 Guest Street, 3rd Floor

Dunk the Sign?

The blog-world is a-twitter after a Boston Globe story ran over the weekend saying that the 1957-vintage, neon Dunkin' Donuts sign at the corner of Market Street and North Beacon Street in Brighton will likely be replaced.

The story has been around all year, though. First word of the sign's probable demise appeared back in March 2007 in the Globe, when reporter Will Kilburn dialed up most of the Brighton Allston Historical Society's masthead for comment:

"My personal feeling is that it should be preserved in the neighborhood somewhere," said John Quatrale , who recently helped plan and open the Brighton-Allston Heritage Museum . "It may not seem very historical right now, but it could become a very special commercial artifact." ...

"I'm sort of neutral on it," said Charlie Vasiliades , the Brighton Allston Historical Society's vice president. "I've never been too enamored with the Dunkin' Donuts look, but I don't hate it either."

"That sign has never struck me as particularly beautiful," said historical society board member Eva Webster . " I'd take a big, robust tree in a town center over any large sign any time."

Standing across the street from the "nuclear aircraft carrier" -- the brand, spanking-new WGBH headquarters -- the neon sign has definitely seen better days.

I've got a different proposal: get rid of the Dunkin' Donuts restaurant altogether. We've got enough of them already. The local franchise owner should be able to create an even more prosperous business catering to the hungry GBH-oids at meal-time.

What to do with that old neon sign in my new scenario? Project its image on the WGBH digital mural over the Mass Turnpike. Then we can enjoy it for all eternity -- and from miles away.


POSTSCRIPT (1/13/08): Read this story about this Dunkin' Donuts, a 20-inch crucifix, and Boston Police in riot gear.

Brighton-Allston Bicentennial Jubilee Saturday Night

The Brighton - Allston Bicentennial Committee Members
Cordially Invite You To The Bicentennial Jubilee

At The New WGBH Building
1 Guest St., Brighton, MA 02135

Featuring “Herb Reed” And “The Platters”

Saturday, November 17, 2007
6:30 pm to 12:00 am
Gourmet Hors D’oeuvres & Cash Bar

Tickets:   $50 per person [CORRECTED]

Contact Terri Weida (617) 254 1950 -- no tickets available at the door, call by Friday

Tickets can also be purchased at http://www.brighton-allston200.com

Journalism, Journalists, and Bloggers

The cacophony continues about whether or not bloggers are journalists, and whether or not they practice journalism. This particular case not only offers a good opportunity to ask generally what is the relationship between blogging and journalism, but to explain how Brighton Centered itself fits into the picture. So we'll start at NECN and BMG, depart to a length trio about Brighton Centered, and then join back in the recapitulation and development of the principal themes.


Beat the Press and NECN Beating Up Bloggers

The latest incident throwing a wrench into the debate occurred a week-and-a-half ago when several writers for the BlueMassGroup blog, who were about to watch a debate among the candidates for the 5th Congressional District, were asked to leave the audience at the NECN studios. Their exclusion was at the request of the handlers for Republican candidate Jim Ogonowski. The reason given was that the BMGers are partisans in the election, having endorsed Ogonowski's opponent, Democrat Niki Tsongas, and actively participated in raising contributions for Tsongas's candidacy through links on their website.

The BMGers left the studios without incident (everyone involved appears to have behaved well publicly), but raised the issue later -- online, of course, but also through the MainStream Media. (See BMG discussions here, here, and here.) The topic was taken up by the pundits on WGBH's "Beat the Press" edition of Greater Boston on Friday, October 12th (video available), who came down on both sides of the issue. Dan Kennedy, of Northeastern University, said that the bloggers should have been able to stay since the BMG bloggers "practice journalism" -- even if they are not professional journalists in a traditional definition -- while John Carroll of Boston University said that those particular bloggers may have been rightfully excluded, because they stepped over the journalistic line by participating in fundraising activities.

Phil Balboni, president of NECN, drew a stark line separating bloggers from journalists when he stated, in a taped interview, that:

Bloggers are not journalists. Not in my definition. You know, the objectivity, the accuracy, the completeness, the balance, and so on and so forth. A story has to have integrity. Bloggers have -- they may or may not wish to subscribe to those standards.

I find that Balboni's statement is self-contradictory: "bloggers may or may not wish to subscribe to those standards" means that those who do are therefore journalists. But that contradicts his point that "bloggers are not journalists," unless he can demonstrate that there exists no blogger on Earth who follows those journalistic standards. Methinks Balboni failed to source his own material; furthermore, I predict that he is probably ignorant about the the blogging corps because he has read little of their writing. To their credit, Beat the Press then countered Balboni's assertion by providing contradictory opinions, i.e., more than one example of a blogger who qualifies as a journalist in their mind. Practicing journalism score card: Beat the Press 1, NECN President Balboni 0.


Does Brighton Centered Practice Journalism?

Let's not just be general about bloggers, let's look at one blog in particular: Brighton Centered. In my view, blogs that deal with local issues, politics, and so on, most closely parallel local newspapers. There are a series of functions that any MSM newspaper will typically contain, and news-related blogs are no different:

1. Community event listings
   
2. News reporting
3. Opinion (aka "Op/Ed" or columns)
4. Editorials
5. Advertising

What You Will and Will Not Find at Brighton Centered. Here at Brighton Centered, I have made a clear and conscious decision to do #1-3, not to do #4, and not to bother with #5 (because I can't imagine I would make enough money to justify the time spent trying to do so).

This is a very important set of distinctions to make: I endorse no position or candidate for elected office (an "editorial" or "endorsement") like BMG did, while I consider it a key element of this blog to provide thoughtful opinion and analysis of the news and community issues. If I see a stupid proposal I am free to call it that -- while providing details supporting the point -- but I do not need to endorse a position or a person who proposed (or opposed) that stupid idea.

The problem with the blogging corps is that we are all too often a single person who tries to do all of #1-3 and maybe also #4. Newspapers, on the other hand, simply have more than one person working for them and can therefore cleanly separate the news desk from the columnists and the editorial board. It is often quite difficult to separate the news from the opinion... but more on that in a moment.


Does Brighton Centered Practice Journalism? I believe the answer is yes. There is probably little question in readers' minds that I have strived to perform a public service here by providing such a wide-range of information on candidates for elected office; a reader can find plenty examples of such journalism currently by looking at the top-right column of this blog. Postings here regularly fit neatly into categories #1, 2, and 3 above.

Some blogs are simply opportunities for the writer to collect, rewrite, or comment on news reported elsewhere. Does Brighton Centered do its own reporting [#2 above]? Once again, the answer is a clear yes. Reporting has included: campaign finance reports (and thereby correcting inaccurate reporting found in the Boston Globe), neighborhood meetings (e.g., BC Task Force), election-day problems and get-out-the-vote-efforts, IP addresses, candidate interviews, dying trees, unblocked-and-then-reblocked Wiltshire Road, local angle on EPA lead-paint allegations, phone surveys, a Ward 21 endorsement, correcting misinformation about bicycle paths in the Boston Globe, community policing in Brighton, a rabid raccoon, past contributions to political campaigns, structurally deficient bridges in Allston-Brighton, candidate opposition to BC's proposal to build Brighton Dorms, withdrawal of two and then another candidate from the race, flooding and a fire along the Charles, etc., ... I'm tiring out from all this linking, so I'll just let you read the last six months of posts.

More to the point: do news-related posts such as these follow standard practices of journalism? Mostly yes, but I am always open to criticism and education on this point. The specific item on which I might be considered to most often depart from "standard journalistic practice" is getting on getting comments from subjects of news stories. The code of ethics states that a journalist should always "diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing." I rarely carry outright accusations of wrongdoing -- and, when I do, I am very conscious about offering the opportunity to respond -- but there are many more cases in the gray area where I don't always seek out a response. While it may not always appear to be the case (!), I do significant fact-checking behind the scenes, much as is expected by a MSM journalist, and follow the standards on when information can be reported as fact or as assertion. If I were a full-time journalist, I would have far more time to track down more sources... but I've got a real job that pays the bills. Such are the trade-offs of the citizen journalist beat.


Separating News From Opinion on a Blog. One way of separating news (#2) from opinion (#3) would be to label the top of every post as either one or the other. Unfortunately, that is often a harsh remedy which divides up a story in an unnatural way -- fully separating the information itself from the analysis of it. Nonetheless, I have used this approach frequently, for example when covering the City Council candidate forums with news quotations and transcript as opposed to analysis, or when providing precinct-level election results and then analyzing them.

Another way to separate news from opinion is by using section headers that offer a fairly clear distinction. Examples of this are in my reporting on campaign finance (for District 9 Councilor and Councilor-At-Large), casino gambling, BC's possibly new -- possibly old -- student behavior policy, and CRI beginning construction of a new boathouse.

A more subtle method to separate news from opinion comes from simple language usage: moving from the active or passive voice to the first person. See the section in this post (above) labelled, "Beat the Press and NECN Beating Up Bloggers," where the last paragraph provides my analysis of NECN President Balboni's remarks and the preceding paragraphs report on other people's positions. Since most of the readers here are well-read and understand the subtleties of language, I believe they can appreciate and follow the simple change of voice, which is a clear way of separating factual news from opinion. This use of language is commonly found in my technical scientific writing, where the factually-supported, strong voice "experiment X causes result Y" can be immediately followed by the (first-person plural) assertion that "we consider the experimental approach to be systematically biased."


Reader Comments. Opinion and commentary also enter into Brighton Centered through another route: comments by readers to the post. Here, I have made some clear decisions that define the nature of the comments allowed. Brighton Centered's reader comments are moderated and require the user to have a Google/Blogger account -- no anonymous reader comments are allowed.

Why? News posts touching Boston College sports in any way -- even when purely factual and containing no opinion or commentary -- routinely result in a torrent of offensive, poorly-written, and totally off-topic responses from readers who are devoted fans of BC sports. (A tiny minority of such fans, I'm sure.) Such reader comments accuse me of bias, hatred of BC sports, etc., even when the posts themselves (and Brighton Centered altogether) contain no such statement; such accusations are not just ignorant, since they have no factual basis, but they would massively clutter up this blog were it to be un-moderated and/or allow anonymous comments.

I have also regularly rejected partisan reader comments on elections-related posts that are of a non-partisan nature. I consider it inappropriate to have reader comments like, "What a stupid answer by Candidate X," attached to a post which is the candidates response to a questionnaire he returned to me. There are places on a blog for reader comments -- but a post containing non-partisan, raw information about a candidate is not such a place.


Does BlueMassGroup Practice Journalism? Is It Even a Blog?

BlueMassGroup is an interesting, albeit odd, online community. It does not squarely follow the format of a blog or a newsgroup; instead, it is a merger of the two, with all of the warts that brings. Blog posts by core members of BMG are typically followed by a wide-ranging discussion of the topic by lots of readers. While it has many lengthy posts, the BMG nonetheless often becomes comment-heavy, not poster-content heavy, which often gives it more of the feel of an active newsgroup than a tightly-controlled blog.


BMG Ejection. The criticism levelled at BMG by John Carroll on Beat the Press was direct and relevant. Newspapers may endorse a candidate but do not participate in fund-raising activities for him/her, so BMG has stepped over a reasonable line drawn by newspapers over the years. As a result, BMGs activity can be argued, with merit, as partisan on the issue of the 5th Congressional District race.

Assuming that NECN had a written document describing how the debate would be run (including who would be in the audience), and had sent this document to the candidates well in advance of the event, then I think that the BMGers probably would not have qualified for press credentials to the event. But NECN appears to have granted press credentials in advance to the BMGers, so we can only conclude that there was no written policy banning journalists who participate in fund-raising activities for one or more candidates. (Or that NECN didn't follow their own rules.)

That said, I don't know why the *&#$ NECN would ban the BMGers from the audience at the studio debate. I have moderated two candidate forums in the last month, and will moderate another debate this week, that have had audiences full of partisans supporting one candidate or another. A professionally-run event simply has to set ground rules for audience behavior (such as no signs, applause, or talking); trust me, the audience will follow the rules and behave with decorum if you ask them. By all accounts, the BMGers were well-behaved and courteous. When NECN President Balboni ejected the BMGers from the audience, he was providing zero confidence in the ability of his own moderator, Jim Braude, to run the event professionally and keep a lid on the audience. I think Balboni's behavior is sad and warrants an apology directly to Braude. If BMGers received press credentials to the event according to NECN's written policy on the debate format, then they should have been allowed in. If Ogonowski's people objected, then he should have walked out the door. His decision, his loss.


BMG, Op/Eds, and Editorials. Some at BMG are correct to state the parallel between their writing and the Op/Ed opinion columns typically found in newspapers. My understanding, however, is that newspapers typically forbid Op/Ed columns from endorsing a specific candidate: "[New York] Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates," wrote Thomas Friedman recently. News journalists usually steer clear of endorsements as well as fund-raising activity. Dan Rather of CBS, for example, was criticized in 2001 for participating in a private campaign fund-raiser, although he later stated that he was given inaccurate advance information about the event.

BMG has enough contributing members that they could easily form a small "editorial board" to decide upon endorsements, while leaving the other writers to express Op/Ed opinions and report on the political news. It would be a worthy exercise to examine the BMG archives to see if they follow any such procedure, and also if such a process is fully transparent to the reader. I am an occasional reader of their site, so I lack a full understanding of their process, but I would hazard a guess that their endorsement process is not fully transparent to the casual reader of their site (like me). Now is their opportunity to define a process for making endorsements which is structured, transparent, and clearly defines the roles of various, specific individuals in contributing to that process. If they do so, then they will be able to justify why certain individual BMGers contributing to their site are free from allegations of editorial bias. The MSM has already invented that wheel by separating editorials from news; BMG would be well-advised not to ignore that invention.

WGBH Open House for New Brighton Studios

WGBH has moved into their new Brighton digs at the corner of Market and Guest Streets.  If you haven't seen their new building, it's supposed to be beautiful inside -- and has been described as a "nuclear aircraft carrier" on the outside by Charles Pierce in the Boston Globe Magazine.  On top of that, they have been contributing to the morning commute along the Mass Pike with a large, digital "mural".

To celebrate their new building, WGBH is hosting a "Member's Day" on Saturday, October 13th, 9:00 am - 6:00 pm, which is only open to contributing members of the station.

But they are having an Open House, open to all members of the public, the following day on Sunday, October 14th, 9:00 am - 6:00 pm.

Both events will happen rain or shine, and both include live entertainment and probably lots of people dressed up as PBS children's characters.  Parking at their garage is limited.  Location:  1 Guest Street, Brighton, MA 02135.

Beat The Press Beating Up Boston College Athletics

I watch very little television, but rarely miss catching "Beat the Press" -- the Friday edition of WGBH's "Greater Boston" -- at some point over the weekend via Comcast On Demand. During one of the segments of the September 28, 2007 broadcast, the panel slid back-and-forth between Oklahoma State football... and Boston College football. Host: Emily Rooney. Guests: Dan Kennedy (Northeastern University), Eileen McNamara (Brandeis University, formerly of Boston Globe), John Carroll (Boston University and Greater Boston), Joe Sciacca (Boston Herald). The video of the segment can be viewed online here.

The show was doing a segment on the press conference by Mike Gundy, coach of the Oklahmoma State University football team, who was complaining about a column by sportswriter Jenni Carlson. Her column was critical of OSU quarterback Bobby Reid, whom Gundy sidelined recently.

The gist of the discussion was that the column was journalistically not well-written -- if not even "toxic" in Carroll's mind -- but also that Gundy's outburst went off the deep end. There was some degree of disagreement amongst the host and guests about whether or not sportswriters should treat college athletes at big-time football programs differently from professional athletes: the segment had an on-air interview by Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaunessy who said that they should be treated differently, while acknowedging, however, that it was a bit of a gray area; Joe Sciacca made the point, and Dan Kennedy agreed, that these college athletes are part of a big-time money-making machine, receive big scholarships and premium housing, and are one-step away from professional sports, and hence should be treated with a scrutiny similar to professional athletes. Apparently, Reid's mother is considering a lawsuit against Carlson.

The discussion continued [unofficial transcript produced by myself]:

MCNAMARA: A kid who is playing hockey for Williams College is not the same as somebody who is playing Big 10 or Big 12 football. I know absolutely nothing about sports, but I am married to a sportswriter, and he says this is big-time athletics... We don't comprehend it, really, here in New England, what real big-time college sports is.

KENNEDY [overlapping with Carroll]: It's as big as professional sports in much of the country.

CARROLL [overlapping with Kennedy]: We're going to get a lot of email from BC fans out there... sorry, Dan.

ROONEY: That's a good example: there's a tremendous amount of attention paid to BC and all of its games. Do they get that kind of scrutiny from the local press? I'm asking that rhetorically because I don't read enough...

CARROLL [overlapping with Kennedy and Rooney]: Well, if you read the police blotter, they do. And that's happened quite often...

KENNEDY [inaudible]

ROONEY: I'm talking about the game itself.

KENNEDY: You don't get it here, because we have major professional sports in every sport you can think of. But if you go out into fly-over country like Oklahoma, this is it, this is what life revolves around, their big-time college sports program. And these guys, it's one degree of separation between that and the NFL.

I have a prediction: they are about to receive a lot of letters and/or email from BC fans.

Comments? Direct them to greaterboston@wgbh.org . Once again, comments or complaints about the WGBH broadcast should be directed to greaterboston@wgbh.org, not here.


Legal and/or Behavioral Troubles for BC Athletes

I suspect that Carroll was making a reference to Boston College athletes who have had some legal (and behavioral) problems both recently and in the more distant past. He gave no specifics, particularly since his comments were in passing, but a little bit of research provides some details.

BC's student newspaper, The Heights, published an editorial back in January motivated by two basketball players being kicked off of the team. A previous basketball player had problems: "Ryan Sidney, who was a promising raw talent, peaked as a freshman because he couldn't keep his personal issues under control and was constantly in the news for drug problems and behavioral indiscretions." The problems date back to 2000-1 "when Kenny Harley was busted for getting in a bar fight at Mary Ann's." The Heights continues:

"Teammate Andrew Bryant was subsequently dismissed from the university after news broke of his involvement in a robbery during which he pistol-whipped somebody. The next year, a bizarre story broke concerning Jermaine Watson jumping out a window, rumored to be armed and escaping cops. He jeopardized his playing ability to escape legal authorities."

Hockey isn't immune: "Captain and assistant captain Joe Rooney and Brian Boyle were stripped of their respective C and A jersey patches." [See note below for clarification: punishment stopped there.] Woman's hockey coach Tom Mutch "stepped down [in April] in the wake of allegations of improper behavior with one of his players" (Boston Globe) -- sexually explicit text messages to Mutch were found on one of his player's cell phone, according to The Heights. Mutch is married, by the way, to a woman who isn't on the team.

This summer, two BC football players, Gosder Cherilus and DeJuan Tribble, were involved in a bar scuffle that has led to charges filed against both. I believe that both are currently playing for BC football this fall. And former linebacker Raymond Henderson was recently, allegedly caught with three different drugs and trafficking paraphernalia in his Cleveland Circle apartment, and has been indicted.

Boston College is a Jesuit-led university that focuses on "student formation," i.e., in teaching their students how to be moral and upstanding in every aspect of their life. It is a fair question to ask: why does this focus on "student formation" appear to be finding difficulty gaining traction amongst a few of their student athletes -- and even one of their coaches?


Note: comments to the Brighton Centered Blog are encouraged, but moderated. Vitriolic comments will not be published.


EDIT (10/2/07):  The case of BC football players Tribble and Cherilus just got more complicated:  the man injured in the bar fight, Sean Maney of Watertown, has now also been charged with assault and battery.  This means that pretty much everyone involved in the scuffle (except Maney's brother's girlfriend) has been criminally charged -- Tribble, Cherilus, off-duty state police officer Joseph Boike, and now Maney.

WGBH Turns on the Digital Mural Alongside MassPike

A couple of months ago, they were testing it; now they're about to switch it on for regular use. It's a large, digital screen alongside the MassPike designed to be seen by eastbound travellers. It's supposed to be showing a single image each day, but news reports are now sounding like they'll be trying a rapidly moving cloud loop, too.

The Boston Herald story notes:

It will be visible to eastbound commuters from about a mile and a half away, and westbound drivers also will be available to catch a glimpse.

That second part worries me: sounds like a lot of westbound necks craning to the left will all cause their steering wheels to pull to the left. Any wagers on when the first person files an accident report with the state police claiming he was distracted by the screen?

You can take WGBH's "Image of the Day Poll" at their site to choose among three pictures to get displayed.

As an astrophysicist, I am happy to heard that there will be a Hubble Space Telescope picture up this week. Assuming WGBH doesn't give full information about it, the first person to post below with the correct name of the astrophysical object in the image will win special mention right here! **

Advisory: WGBH Testing New 30-foot LED Screen

WHO: WGBH

WHAT: Testing of the 30-foot LED screen on WGBH’s new Brighton studio complex



WHEN: Wednesday Aug.1- Saturday Aug. 4, 2007
Off-peak driving times throughout the day and evening

WHERE: WGBH studios
One Guest Street
(Corner of Market and Guest streets)
Brighton

WGBH will conduct tests of the 30-foot light emitting diode (LED) screen on the outside of its new, all-digital studio complex in Brighton. To be conducted during off-peak commuting times throughout the day and evening, the tests will involve displaying colors, test patterns and images on the screen, which will be visible to eastbound commuters on the Mass. Pike from up to two miles away.

Scheduled to become operational in mid-September—when WGBH formally dedicates its new studios—the 30-foot by 45-foot screen will display slowly changing images that evoke WGBH’s award-winning science, history, public affairs, lifestyle, drama and children’s programming. The images will change each day, with additional information and background on the day’s chosen image available on the WGBH Web site at www.wgbh.org.

For more information, contact:
Stefanie Koperniak
Publicist, Media Relations
WGBH
phone: 617-300-5317
fax: 617-300-1016
stefanie_koperniak@wgbh.org

Western Avenue Disruption 7/7: WGBH Bridge Removal

In North Allston, the overpass bridge for WGBH will be demolished on Saturday, July 7th.

Western Avenue between North Harvard Street and the Western Ave Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on 7/7 between 7am and 7pm.

There will also be lane shifts on Western Avenue on Monday 7/9 and Tuesday 7/10.