The Herald on Kerry's Joke: Laughable

If anyone reads today's Boston Herald headline (all 10 inches of it), you'd know John Kerry is political toast - he's a great big meanie who hates the troops. He's a Star Bucks drinking MTassachusetts Elitist. He's goofy and uncomfortably smug all in one.

(Pardon me while I leave this blog for a few minutes and go have myself a barf...)

Okay, back. Let's have us a closer look at this Herald article (my eyes, my eyes!!).

In the second paragraph, before the Herald even repeated John Kerry's actual joke quote, there was this gem:

"I think John Kerry is writing his own epitaph," New York University political science professor Mitchell Moss said as controversy swirled around the senator. "He's clearly self-destructing."

I'll skip past the fact that the Herald had to dial all the way to Manhattan (they must have Vonage) to find a crazy-enough "Political Scientist" to provide that juicy quote. Let's get to the important stuff. The Herald wanted its readers to form an opinion, from a so-called expert, before even knowing what John Kerry had to say. Nice.

Speaking of important stuff:

Journalism 101: Start off with the most important information, end with the least important.

How could the Herald pen anything before they answer the who, what, why and when of the story - in this case the what? Wouldn't it make sense to - oh, I don't know - start off with the truth before injecting opinion? For example, wouldn't it make sense to say that John Kerry has been using this joke on his stump for ages - except, in this case, he made a gaffe? That's kinda important and relevant, right?

Right-shmight, who cares about what's right and wrong, so long as it's truthy and the Herald is a tabloid. Hack pieces are par for the course in the pages of the Boston Herald. The truth is anathema to the Herald's agenda (profits and shilling). Why report the news when you can piss lots of black ink on political careers, valid critiques or not?

Still, I try to hold out some hope that a "newspaper" will try to have a little bit more credibility than Rush Limbaugh talking about stem cell research. Alas, I repeatedly set myself up for disappointment. People have often asked why I bother reading the Boston Herald. I usually tell them "to know what my enemies are thinking," but sometimes I think I must be a masochist.

Update: I threw this on Dkos, because I thought it would be of some interest to folks beyond the Bay State. Feel free to slap it with a kudos if you have an account (and thought I presented a somewhat interesting blog). Thanks!

Update #2: The Political Scientist the Herald quotes, Mitchel Moss, isn't even an expert on electoral politics. He isn't an expert on the federal government, Massachusetts politics or even public opinion. Nah... He's an expert on urban government. So... if the Herald was looking for someone to give advice on whether or not Boston should build a new 1,000 foot tower, that's a great phone call to make. But on John Kerry?