Monday, April 04, 2005

A PULITZER FOR THE GLOBE. The Boston Globe wins its second Pulitzer Prize of the Marty Baron era and its first since 2003, when it received the public-service award for its coverage of the pedophile-priest crisis.

This time, science writer Gareth Cook wins for explanatory reporting, "for explaining, with clarity and humanity, the complex scientific and ethical dimensions of stem cell research." His portfolio is online here.

Gareth was the Phoenix news editor for several years in the late '90s.

TOUGH TIMES FOR HERALD STAFFERS. Word out of One Herald Square this afternoon is that publisher Pat Purcell has told the unions he needs to eliminate 35 jobs from the newsroom as part of his goal of cutting $7 million in expenses by June 30.

Given that there are already fewer than 150 union positions in the newsroom, this is bound to have a serious effect on coverge. More on this as it develops.

4 comments:

Steve said...

Would dropping Howie Carr be a net positive or negative for the Herald? The man must be an embarrassment to real journalists everywhere, but he has a following as an "entertainer". I'd feel better about the Herald if they booted him out, though - it would signal that they're serious about reporting facts instead of pumping the kind of sludge Carr belches out.

Anonymous said...

Re Gareth Cook. Faint praise. I turned to your blog for more, given the Phoenix connection.


Jane

Dan Kennedy said...

I didn't say much about Gareth Cook's Pulitzer because I was saving it for the print edition. So be sure to have a look tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

See, I KNEW you wouldn't have ignored that story. Thanks! Nice little piece. Luckily it was online. Here in the NM high prairie you won't find the Phoenix on the newsstand. In fact, you won't even find a newsstand.

Your Marty Baron quote about wanting the Globe to excel in science... brought back sad feelings about Betsy Lehman who is not around to help that happen.

I worked forthe Tufts/NE Medical bone marrow transplant program at the time of the horrible error (NOT at Tufts) that killed Betsy. I well remember how everyone in the Tufts program realized how easily that could happen in any teaching hospital oncology setting even with all kinds of check programs in place. For example, I worked in the office and I knew at the time that the template for the high dose chemotherapy lived on a crappy 3 1/2 inch floppy which often rode around in the pocketbook of a very ... interesting... bone marrow transplant coordinator. Who doesn't work there anymore. That plus all the bmt fellows who worked long hours under tremendous pressure and the doses varying all over the place, almost everying is experimental, new pharm. company protocols all over the place, and on and on. I'd like to have seen Cook handle that story.

Regards,
Jane