ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
January 20, 2005
Metro executives’ slurs seen
jeopardizing merger plans
Yawu
Miller
If anyone doubted that Boston Herald Publisher Patrick Purcell
is opposed to the New York Times’ proposed acquisition of
a 49 percent interest in the Metro’s Boston edition, the
headlines in the tabloid last week easily cleared up the misconception.
The Herald plastered allegations of racism at the free publication
in bold letters next to images of angry black ministers.
The Herald picked up the story after MediaChannel.org, a web log
run by journalist Rory O’Connor, revealed that Metro executives
had told racist jokes using the n-word during company conferences
in 2003.
While newspapers seldom report on allegations of discrimination
at other news outlets, the Herald reported on two Massachusetts
Commission Against Discrimination complaints against the Boston
Metro.
In the following days, the Herald continued to publish the allegations,
along with reactions from a handful of black clergy and activists,
several of whom called for a boycott of the free publication.
“Black leaders call for action,” read a sub-headline
on the cover of the Thursday edition.
Boston Association of Black Journalists President Howard Manley,
who serves as a columnist at the Herald, echoed the call for a
boycott in a Wednesday column.
“Leave it in the hands of those grossly underpaid hawkers
standing in front of the subway stations and let them return their
bundles back to their ignorant owners,” Manly wrote.
The Herald’s bid to expose racism at the Metro comes after
Purcell announced he has asked the Justice Department to investigate
the Times’ merger with the Metro as a violation of antitrust
laws. A partnership between the Times corporation and the Metro
could significantly weaken the Herald by providing the free paper
with better content, observers say.
Both the Herald and Metro have tabloid formats that
make them easier to read on public transit than a broadsheet newspaper.
While the Herald spoke to half a dozen people their reporters
termed “black leaders” for the story, not everyone
contacted by the Banner was supportive of the paper’s bid
to block the merger.
“It’s really the pot calling the kettle black,”
said Horace Small, executive director of the Union of Minority
Neighborhoods. “It’s ironic that the Herald is playing
the race card when all they ever do is race baiting.”
Small pointed out columnist Mike Barnicle’s Thursday rant
against juvenile cell phone use, in which he blasted Boston public
school children for sending illiterate text messages on their
cellphones.
“I’m not a gambling man,” Barnicle wrote, “but
I would be willing to bet a fair amount that more kids leave school
with cellphones than books necessary to do homework. Just a hunch.”
Small said charges of racism could easily be leveled at all of
the city’s mainstream media.
“People in the African American community need to sit down
with the Globe, Herald and the Metro and talk about their editorial
content and their hiring,” he commented.
In the black community, the Herald is well known for its conservative
op-ed page, featuring writers like former columnist Don Fedder,
who angered the city’s Puerto Rican population with a 1998
column berating “immigrants” from their island, which
is a US territory.
While the Boston Metro has had a decidedly more progressive tone,
the local affiliate has no people of color on staff. That lack
of diversity is reflected in Metro International, notes Robin
Washington, a former Herald columnist now editorial page editor
for the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune.
“The larger issue is staffing,” he said.
“If there had been a black person at that meeting, the comment
wouldn’t have been said in the first place. And if it had,
we certainly would have heard about it long before.”
As it turns out, some of the white Metro staffers in the room
did talk about the slurs, but journalists in the know were slow
to come out with the story. Globe columnist Alex Beam said he
pursued the story, but was met with denials by Metro officials.
Rory O’Connor, who had the story for more than a year, sat
on it until he caught wind of The New York Times corporation’s
bid to aquire a share of the Boston Metro.
“No one would have known anything about any of this if it
weren’t for a fight between two white companies,”
noted state Rep. Byron Rushing.
Rushing said the calls for a boycott which aired in the Herald
last week probably won’t amount to much.
“I think black people should organize,” he suggested.
“No one should try to decide what the community should do
by themselves. We should have a meeting. Anyone who’s interested
should discuss what we should do. You can’t call for an
action if you don’t know what your goal is.”
Evidence of boycott activity was scarce last week as bus passengers
in the Dudley bus terminal — the black community’s
busiest transit hub — clutched copies of the tabloid en
route to work.
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