The formerly independent Bay State Banner (II)

Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker writes about Bay State Banner publisher Melvin Miller's decision to accept a $200,000 government-administered loan, courtesy of Boston Mayor Tom Menino: "[I]ts independence is the only thing that makes the Banner worth saving, journalistically speaking. There is simply no getting around the fact that it will return to the stands as a less independent voice."

The formerly independent Bay State Banner

In their wonderful little book on media ethics, "The Elements of Journalism," Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel identify independence as such a touchstone that it comprises two of their nine points:

4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

Today the Bay State Banner ceases to be an independent newspaper. By accepting Boston Mayor Tom Menino's offer of a $200,000 government-administered loan, publisher Melvin Miller has compromised his 44-year-old weekly, which covers Greater Boston's African-American community.

Miller tells the Boston Globe that he'll still criticize Menino if he thinks it's warranted. But that's not the issue. Now, even if he blasts Menino, readers will have a right to wonder what calculations went into that — indeed, whether the Banner was being critical of the mayor just to prove that it could.

The Banner loan is neither unprecedented nor is it the end of the world. Several decades ago the late David Brickman, owner of the Malden Evening News, accepted government redevelopment money in order to build a new headquarters as part of an effort to rehabilitate Malden Square. The News continued to be a valuable local resource for many years to come. But there was a lot of criticism even at the time.

The general, inviolable rule is that government and journalism can't mix because journalism is meant to be an independent check on government. That's why recent suggestions to bail out the struggling newspaper business have largely been met with hoots of derision.

Miller may be right when he says accepting the loan is preferable to letting his paper go out of business. The Banner may continue as an important community outlet. I hope it does. But something was lost when Miller said "yes" to Menino.

More: John Carroll has similar thoughts.

The definition of a bad idea

Boston Mayor Tom Menino's proposal to prop up the Bay State Banner with a $200,000 loan administered by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Talk about a conflict of interest. No word on whether Banner publisher Melvin Miller is on board. Let's hope not.

New questions about the Roxbury mosque

Just finished reading David Bernstein's excellent piece in this week's Boston Phoenix on the long-controversial mosque that's been built in Roxbury, known as the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Among other things, Bernstein reports the following:

• Originally intended as a spiritual center primarily for U.S.-born African-American Muslims, the center's control shifted long ago to conservative Muslims primarily from the Middle East, some of whom have espoused homophobic and anti-Semitic views.
  
• Despite numerous financial difficulties, the project was pushed along at key moments by Mayor Tom Menino and a staff member at the Boston Redevelopment Authority who had a conflict of interest that almost certainly should have led him to recuse himself.
• Promised benefits to the community have not materialized, and are unlikely to any time soon given the mosque's ongoing financial problems.
• Former state senator Dianne Wilkerson and Boston city councilor Chuck Turner, charged by federal authorities with taking bribes, have showed an unusual degree of interest in the mosque.

The mosque has been 20 years in the making, and is still incomplete. A fascinating story, even though there are more questions in Bernstein's story than there are answers.

Stephen Baird on Menino's crackdown

Musician Stephen Baird, the founder of Street Arts and Buskers Advocates, offers more details on Mayor Tom Menino's crackdown at Faneuil Hall. In an e-mail to Media Nation, Baird notes that the steel fence erected by city and federal officials blocks the Freedom Trail, something the irony-deprived mayor no doubt fails to appreciate.

I reproduce Baird's e-mail (which I have lightly edited) with his permission:

The City of Boston and National Park Service put a fence around one of the premier symbols of freedom in America — Faneuil Hall. The fence actually blocks the Freedom Trail. This was done to disenfranchise the civil rights of street artists and the general public who freely choose to peaceably assemble and support them. The fence is a blight not only on the city, but the country. The fence, similar to the old Berlin Wall, is a symbol of Mayor Thomas Menino's and other government officials' failure to develop intelligent and equitable public policies and regulations.

There was no warning or public process before this crackdown. Portrait artists, living statues and street performers were suddenly told they could no longer exercise their First Amendment artistic expression in this public park by the police. There are no written guidelines or laws, just the arbitrary whim of the police officers and government officials of where people can perform and audiences can gather.

These actions are all being done in direct defiance of stipulation by Boston city attorneys in the federal court case Community Arts Advocates Inc. v. City of Boston et al. (December 2004), where they stated artists would not be stopped from exercising their First Amendment expression in Sam Adams Park.

Background:

I sued the City of Boston 2004-2006 over arrests and threats of arrest in Boston Common, Downtown Crossing, Copley Square and Sam Adams Park.

The city repealed old Police Rule 75 (from 1850s) and a new law (403) that was just as bad on December 23, 2004, in front of Federal Judge Nancy Gertner. I was threatened with arrest in Sam Adams Park while conducting an interview with Boston Phoenix about this court case. See photograph and details.

I argued that the city could not allow Faneuil Hall audition artists to use Sam Adams Park and not allow other artists. And I won.

I proposed an ordinance similar to the Cambridge ordinance, but the city stated it would use other laws, including the noise ordinance, to control performances. The police have since failed to monitor sound levels with decibel meters. (Sound is also supposed to be inaudible at 100 feet, which could control bucket drummers). The city cannot control performance location issues with out doing drastic, heavy handed and unconstitutional ad hoc use of other laws. See the front page Boston Globe story by Donovan Slack on Aug. 1, 2008.

The City of Boston put chairs and tables in the primary performance area in Sam Adams Park, which pushed artists next to the restaurant that caused the current complaints.

The closing of Filene's and construction of Downtown Crossing has pushed many artists to Sam Adams Park. There are many conflicts of space, sound and other issues between artists. Artists — Balloon, Living Statues, Portrait Sketch, Bucket Drums — started to set up on north side of Faneuil Hall facing Quincy Market, which has curtailed and caused major tensions with Quincy Market artists.

As long as the city fails to set up performance location guidelines, a lottery system to share the performance locations/time and enforce the noise ordinance consistently/fairly (the police and firemen union picket demonstration were 10 times louder then any performers at Sam Adams Park), then the situation will flare up with arrogant abuse of power that is both mean-spirited and unconstitutional.

I suspect the only way I will be able to bring any measure of equity to this situation is through the federal court.

Stephen H. Baird
Street Arts and Buskers Advocates
Community Arts Advocates Inc.
P.O. Box 300112
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
E-mail: info {at} BuskersAdvocates {dot} org
Web: www.BuskersAdvocates.org

Cultivating ongoing fundamental relationships between artists and communities by celebrating self-expression as a basic human right essential for the healthy growth of youth, individuals and communities.

Menino's last tangle with Baird resulted in His Honor's receiving a 2005 Phoenix Muzzle Award. It looks like he's well on his way to winning another one.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Baird.

Stop having so much fun

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has really outdone himself with his edict to crack down on street performers at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. His Honor has always tended to prefer other people's free speech in moderation, but this is ridiculous.

Adam Gaffin: "Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown."

The Outraged Liberal: "I didn't realize balloon artists were so noisy, although I admit to occasionally getting chills when you twist a balloon and it makes a little squeak."

What really gets me about Boston Globe reporter Donovan Slack's story is that this is apparently being done, in part, for the benefit of restaurant patrons sitting outdoors on warm summer days and nights. I mean, we can't have people who are spending money being bothered by people who aren't, can we?

"When it's nice, we like to open the doors," a restaurant manager named Jennifer Achevarria told Slack. "Our biggest concern is the noise level, which directly affects our paying guests and disturbs the ambience."

Good grief. And in the shadow of Faneuil Hall no less. Samuel Adams would be frowning on the beer named after him if Jim Koch hadn't already shrunk his picture to near-invisibility.

Photo (cc) by Chris Kirkman and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Politics and the BPL (II)

Fired Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis goes after Mayor Tom Menino in today's lead story in the Boston Globe. And Margolis' comments are in perfect accord with this week's Boston Phoenix editorial, which I flagged last Friday.

According to Margolis, the mayor had actually rebuffed his efforts to strengthen the branch libraries — a shortcoming supposedly responsible for Margolis' ouster — and then turned around and used that as an excuse to get rid of him.

Globe reporter Donovan Slack's story includes this:

Margolis said he knew in May that his contract would not be renewed, when [Menino chief of staff Judith] Kurland visited him at the library. After taking a tour and perusing 17th-century documents from the Bay Colony, she delivered the news.

"She said, 'I want to tell you that your contract will not be renewed when it's up next year,' " Margolis said. "She said, 'If the trustees don't go along with it, they will be removed.' "

Kurland confirmed that she had told Margolis his contract would not be renewed, but she denied that she had talked to him about replacing trustees not willing to go along. "What I said was, 'We do have the votes not to reappoint, if you want us to take a vote on it,' " Kurland said.

The only way Menino can make amends for this stunning exercise in political bullying is to bring in a first-class replacement for Margolis. We'll see.

Politics and the BPL

So what is the real reason that Bernard Margolis is being forced out of his job as president of the Boston Public Library? To read the Boston Globe's coverage, you'd think Margolis had all but ignored the neighborhood branches over the past 10 years. A Globe editorial endorses that view.

But a Boston Phoenix editorial this week places the blame squarely on Mayor Tom Menino, who reportedly has never liked Margolis, and who has decided to indulge his penchant for stacking his administration with loyalists rather than put up with an independent-thinking visionary.

According to the Phoenix, three BPL trustees held Menino off from acting on his worst instincts over the years — former Globe publisher William Taylor, former Massachusetts Senate and UMass president Bill Bulger and state Rep. Angelo Scaccia. But Taylor is no longer a trustee, Bulger and Scaccia have lost clout, and Menino is now free to do what he pleases.

Here's the heart of the editorial:

Now that Margolis's firing is about to be made official, the city is being treated to a campaign of disinformation suggesting that, while Margolis was good for the historic central library in Copley Square, his track record in the branches was lacking. This is rubbish, so out of line with reality that it approaches a big-lie strategy: tell a whopper with enough conviction and frequency and you can get the public to believe it. It will probably work. Also wrested out of context are recycled versions of Margolis's unwillingness to install Internet filters — except for children — on library computers. Free speech may be uncomfortable at times, but it should never be so in a library.

I covered the filter controversy for the Phoenix back in 1997, shortly after Margolis had arrived, and I was impressed with his sophisticated, sensitive approach. He easily could have sided with Menino and engaged in out-and-out censorship, or taken an absolutist free-speech view and refused to install any filters. Instead, he found intelligent middle ground.

Ten years is a long time to run a major cultural institution such as the BPL. If the trustees replace Margolis with someone of equal stature, but perhaps with a different set of priorities, then no harm will have been done except the damage that's already been unfairly visited upon Margolis' reputation.

But the Phoenix editorial makes a convincing case that Margolis is being let go for all the wrong reasons. Those of us who love libraries ought to be concerned.

Photo (cc) by seahills1. Some rights reserved.

What about the Tommy Times?

The Boston Herald today pokes fun at Mayor Tom Menino, who criticized the media yesterday for what he calls their overemphasis on violent crime. The Herald's Laurel Sweet reports on Menino's church appearance in Dorchester:

"A lot of people want to believe it's out of control. It's not out of control," Menino assured a packed house at Greater Love Tabernacle in the heart of Dorchester’s shooting gallery, where he was welcomed by thunderous applause.

"This city works. The problem is you're always seeing headlines about the bad news. I wish we had a good news newspaper. The Good News of Boston. The bad guys don't control this city, they only control the headlines."

But I thought there already was a Good News of Boston — the Boston City Communicator, forthrightly labeled "Mayor Menino's 'Communicator'" in this press release marking its January launch and immediately dubbed the Tommy Times by the Herald. The announcement sparked a wave of derision on Universal Hub, with local blogger Carpundit calling it "a cynical and horrible idea."

I know the Tommy Times is only a quarterly — but that means it should be just about time for another edition. Suggested lead headline: "City Peaceful, Prosperous Thanks to Mayor."

The Boston Globe also covered Menino's remarks, but Maria Cramer's story doesn't mention His Honor's media critique. Adam Reilly points out that Cramer caught up with the mayor at a different church.