Comments for Media Nation

Comment on Bill Dedman’s “investigative slideshow” by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:14:52 +0000

@Aaron: Good question, but I doubt many people actually click more than two or three times on those things. You’re right — they are obnoxious as hell.

Comment on Bill Dedman’s “investigative slideshow” by Aaron Read

Aaron Read — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:58:09 +0000

This raises an interesting point. The Globe is NOTORIOUS for those “20 Things about the Red Sox/Patriots/etc” slideshows (and Dedman is right; they’re obnoxious as hell) and often they’re hyper-inflated because they include two extra slides for each real slide: a slide for a user poll and then a followup slide with the results of the poll.

So just one of those features can increase a single user’s pageviews by a factor of 10 or 20.

Could that have an impact on why the Globe is supposedly the “biggest website” of all the regional newspapers in the US?

Comment on Is Hudak putting words in Brown’s mouth again? by Steve Stein

Steve Stein — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:05:31 +0000

Sean, it’s nothing compared to what would have happened if Coakley had posed nude in her 20s.

Comment on More on the Claire O’Brien case by mary o\\\'brien

mary o\\\'brien — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:36:29 +0000

Please contact claire with your ideas for support and assistance.
she can be reached at claireobrien23 {at} gmail {dot} com
Mary O’

Comment on Good for Charlie Baker by ben starr

ben starr — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:20:10 +0000

That event is a relic and Charlie Baker wins points for blowing off that insider-fest.

Comment on Mapping potholes with help from readers by Michael Pahre

Michael Pahre — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:28:10 +0000

Adam’s right. And the City of Boston has one important technical feature of their system: pothole issues immediately get routed straight to the appropriate public works site.

I’ve dealt with the city on many constituent service requests of various kinds. While lethargic in other areas, they are very prompt in filling potholes. No need for an outside application.

In fact, Boston has too many people employed filling potholes. Q: How many people and trucks does it take to fill a pothole in Boston? A: Three and two.

Some say Il Duce was popular for making the trains run on time. Menino is popular for filling the potholes — and employing lots of people to do it.

Comment on Surfs pounds Gloucester coast by B.A. DuBois

B.A. DuBois — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:21:19 +0000

Nice footage Dan… next time, bring a tripod, wear a bright orange slicker and a Northeastern University hat, and stare in the camera and give us a liveshot… … very impressive ocean that day…

Comment on Mapping potholes with help from readers by Adam Gaffin

Adam Gaffin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:44:37 +0000

This is a most cool thing, but: It looks like once a pothole is added, it’s never taken off. I spotted one report that is 398 days old. Does that mean it’s never been fixed, or just that nobody’s following up?

Compare with the city of Boston’s GIS Data Hub, which maps real-time status of pothole and other complaints: http://hubmaps1.cityofboston.gov/datahub/

It has its own problems (the interface is slow and clunky), but ultimately more useful if you really want to track, say, potholes (or broken traffic lights).

Comment on Mapping potholes with help from readers by L.K. Collins

L.K. Collins — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:42:14 +0000

This map has been available for years. It ain’t no scoop.

You’re late to the party, Dan.

Comment on Wrong on reconciliation by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:57:04 +0000

@Tony: There are two choices: the Senate bill (with whatever tweaks the House might be able to add) or nothing for another 20 years. If you’d rather have nothing for another 20 years, then that’s fine. That’s your position. To bring up a Bernie Sanders proposal is to remove yourself from the realm of anything that’s even remotely doable, regardless of the actual merits of his plan.

The Nixon plan would have been preferable than what’s on the table now, but Ted Kennedy and other Democrats killed it in favor of something even better. We’re still waiting. Not wanting to become an expert on health-care reform, I have relied on Paul Krugman as to whether what’s on the table should get thumb’s-up or thumb’s-down. Remember, he supported Clinton over Obama in large measure because Obama’s health-care plan wasn’t progressive enough. Here’s his bottom line:

So what’s the reality of the proposed reform? Compared with the Platonic ideal of reform, Obamacare comes up short. If the votes were there, I would much prefer to see Medicare for all.

For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good. It wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.

This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.