Times Company Sells Boston Globe

Yesterday the New York Times Company agreed to sell the Boston Globe to Red Sox owner John Henry for a mere $70M.  Twenty years ago the Times Company bought the Globe for $1.1B.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirmed the planned sale of the Globe and other media properties to Henry. The Times said the all-cash sale, expected to close in 30 to 60 days, includes BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Telegram.com, the direct mail marketing company Globe Direct and the company’s 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper for commuters. Henry cited the “essential role that its journalists and employees play in Boston, throughout New England, and beyond.” “The Boston Globe’s award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country,” Henry said in a statement.

Henry also owns a British soccer team.

BOSTON: Dreamworks Studios Buys Rights To Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal Story

Dreamworks Studios has contracted with the Boston Globe for the movie rights to the Catholic sexual abuse scandal story that the paper broke ten years ago.

DreamWorks Studios and Participant Media announced their acquisition Tuesday, expressing the intention to create a drama with Tom McCarthy tapped to direct and co-write with Josh Singer. Holly Bario, DreamWorks President of Production, said in a statement that the story by the Globe was extremely important both for Massachusetts and eventually the global community.  "The Boston Globe's coverage of the Catholic priest scandal opened the door to a bigger story that had worldwide ramifications," said Bario. "The story of how this team of editors and reporters came to uncover the truth will make a dramatic and compelling film, especially with the talents of our director Tom McCarthy and his co-screenwriter Josh Singer on board."

As you'd expect, Bill Donohue has an opinion.

"Films about the sexual abuse of minors have all flopped – there is no market for such fare. People want to be entertained when they go to the movies, and there is no entertainment value in these flicks," said Donohue. Donohue also told CP that if "the film sticks to Boston alone, which admittedly was a pretty sick archdiocese, that may not be a problem." "But if it swings widely, painting all priests and bishops as miscreants, then it would be engaging in Catholic bashing. So we'll see," said Donohue.

In 2003 the Boston Globe won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the scandal.

The Big Picture

The Boston Globe has devoted its regular Big Picture feature to numerous photos of what people are facing in the wake of Sandy. The UK's Daily Mail has many photos as well.

Boston Globe Endorses Tisei

Today the Boston Globe endorsed homocon GOP House candidate Richard Tisei over eight-term Democratic Rep. John Tierney, whose campaign has been saddled with a financial scandal involving his wife.

Over the years, the voters of Massachusetts have generally been reluctant to turn out incumbent members of Congress; the implicit bargain has been that, in exchange for being granted long tenure, they are expected to exert outsize influence on public policy. This approach produced such legislative giants as Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy. But while Tierney can be proud of his role in expanding access to college loans and heightening scrutiny of contracts in Afghanistan, his accomplishments aren’t so impressive as to negate his liabilities. All of this raises a question for Massachusetts voters: Are there any conditions, short of accusations of criminal wrongdoing, under which an incumbent should be unseated by a promising challenger? There should be.  If Tisei replaces Tierney, the GOP challenger will have much to prove — that he can be effective in protecting vital federal research dollars from cuts, that he can be a force for education reform, and above all that he can function effectively in a Republican House caucus that’s pushing ever more to the right. But voters should give him the chance.

Tisei has also been endorsed by both GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans. If he wins, he will become the first-ever Republican member of Congress who was out before the election.

Venus In Flight

Yesterday the Boston Globe's long-running Big Picture photo essay featured numerous shots of Venus crossing between the sun and the Earth. That won't happen again until 2117.

Tea Party Patriots Declare From Podium: "We Will Not Be Silenced By Faggots"

The Tea Party rally I mentioned early this morning was a lot rowdier than even that story suggested. Visit Scott Wooledge's exhaustive report at Daily Kos for more. One charming highlight came when the speaker at the podium shouted, "We will not be silenced by FAGGOTS!" It also looks like there will be an investigation in the above Boston police officer.

The department was criticized after photographs circulated online that appear to depict a city officer with his right hand around the throat of a man at the protest. The man is wearing a bandanna that covers the lower part of his face. Both of his hands are at his own waist, holding a pink wig. Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department, said that the photographs, which were posted to the picture-sharing website Flickr, appeared to be from the Common, when protesters rushed the stage at the Tea Party event, which had a permit. “The aggressive nature of these individuals required officers to call for numerous additional units to respond. The department supports the arrests made by the officers today,” Driscoll said in an e-mail. “As a matter of routine procedure following a day of aggressive protests, the department will review all of the activity that took place during the course of the day.”

Top Ten Reasons For Gays To Vote GOP

A snippet from the Boston Globe's sarcastic piece:

Michele Bachmann’s husband might be gay.
This is quite a stretch, but at least some people’s gaydar is going off when it comes to the lisping Dr. Marcus Bachmann. This may seem particularly odd since the unlicensed therapist offers “reparative therapy,” which allegedly helps homosexuals move toward a heterosexual orientation. But that may prove even more credible evidence of his homosexuality given that many prominent ex-gay advocates have had to concede defeat after same-sex sex scandals, including former board chairman of ex-gay group Exodus John Paulk and disgraced evangelical minister Rev. Ted Haggard. Michele could just unwittingly give the U.S. its first gay First Gentleman. And, who knows — while we are stretching the bounds of imagination — what if Marcus then revealed that Michele is more than his beard? Perhaps Michele could be our first lesbian president. Big stretch.

As regards the 1994 flyer above, the one funny thing about Romney's inevitable nomination is how he is so viciously hated by the anti-gay industry. When they're not tweeting lies about man-dog marriage, they're usually spewing attacks on "homo-lover Romney." So that aspect of Romney's nomination, at least, will be suh-weet to witness.

The Year In Pictures

Above is the first image in the Boston Globe's annual Year In Pictures feature. Hit the link for some amazing shots.

Freep This Boston Globe Poll

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley will hold a DOMA press conference at 3:30PM today. In the meantime, you know what to do.

Photo Of The Day - Solar Eclipse

The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog has a great series of photos of Tuesday's solar eclipse. The above image was taken by a telescope on a low-orbit satellite.

RELATED: The Big Picture has been named to Regator's Top Ten Blogs Of 2010. And so has this here website thingy.

Boston Globe Profiles Scott Lively

The Boston Globe has published a lengthy profile of Pink Swastika author Scott Lively, who is attempting to reinvent himself as some kind of savior to the homeless of Springfield, Massachusetts. An excerpt:

Scott Lively says he is toning down his antigay rhetoric and shifting his focus to helping the downtrodden. And he’s found a home and a receptive audience in this struggling city where many, but not all, have embraced his mission to “re-Christianize Springfield.’’ Every day, patrons stream to the Christian folk shows and Bible classes at Holy Grounds Coffee House, the café he opened about two months ago on a block not far from downtown. A thousand people turned out for the March for Jesus he led from the café to the steps of City Hall on the day before Easter. And dozens of children and parents flocked to a city park for his annual Family Day celebration, featuring a water slide, face painting, and grilled food. Even the mayor stopped by that event. “You can’t walk down the street without being greeted by somebody saying, ‘Hey, Rev. Scott!’ ’’ said Lively, an evangelical pastor who moved to Springfield from California in January 2008. “It’s very satisfying.’’

While it's repulsive to see Lively given a platform like this, the paper does devote several paragraphs to Lively's hand in the creation of Uganda's "Kill Gays" bill.

BOSTON: Rachel Maddow Takes Out Full-Page Ad Against Sen. Scott Brown

Rachel Maddow took out a full-page ad in today's Boston Globe in which she derides Sen. Scott Brown for his claims that she is going to run for his Senate seat.

"I'm not running against Scott Brown," Maddow said. "I never said I was running against Scott Brown. The Massachusetts Democratic Party never asked me to run against Scott Brown. It's just not true. Honestly. I swear. No, really." Maddow hit Brown for trashing one of his constituents. "Do you remember when Mitt Romney ran for President after being our Governor and he went around the country insulting Massachusetts, talking about what an awful state we are?" she wrote. "To have our new Senator raising money around the country by saying how terrible one of his Massachusetts constituents is, kind of feels the same way to me. Maddow wrote that "it's standard now for conservatives to invent scary fake threats to run against," citing death panels and the birther movement. "Senator Scott Brown's only been in DC seven weeks, but he already seems to be fitting right in with how conservatives operate there."

Maddow notes that so far Brown has refused to come on her show.

Boston Globe On The Brink

It looks like the end may be near for the Boston Globe.

The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. After down-to-the-wire negotiations did not produce millions of dollars in union concessions, the Times Co. said that it will file today a required 60-day notice of the planned shutdown under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law. The move could amount to a negotiating ploy to extract further concessions from the Globe's unions, since the notice does not require the Times Co. to close the paper after 60 days. The deadline, however, would put the unions under fierce pressure to produce additional savings, and the Boston Newspaper Guild promptly called the step a "bullying" tactic by the company.

The Globe is expected to lose $85M this year.