Counter-intuitive

Something I heard last night from a friend who happens to be my state rep: The Boston Herald drives what happens on Beacon Hill, especially in the House. I have to admit that I was shocked by this. I almost never read the Herald. Hardly anyone except hardcore wingnuts out here in the 'burbs reads the Herald. It's the paper for people who find the Globe too hard to read.

Conservative media outlets like the Herald relish propaganda. They don't see their role as objective. They see it as a counterbalance - against outlets like the Globe that do actually provide op-ed balance to their political ideology. By contrast, today the Herald has two conservative editorials (no surprise), three conservative op-eds, and Howie Carr for a clean sweep.

Maybe that's not representative. It looks as though I'll have to add the Herald to my news stack for a while to gather more data.

One of the op-eds comes from my bête noire Eric Fehrnstrom (professional Romney shill). He analyzes the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial race with the goal of electing Republican Charlie Baker. Former Democrat Tim Cahill, says Fehrnstrom, stands in the way, and the GOP needs to co-opt him.

Get this, Fehrnstrom's analysis is right (heh) on target. Another three-way race greatly benefits Deval Patrick.

Red Sox static

What I want to know is this: The team with the second highest payroll in Major League Baseball and the most loyal fan base has a radio "network" that can't give me a consistent signal from any station, much less from a single station, on short trips in Metrowest, less that 30 miles from downtown Boston. Sometimes the New York stations come in better, which is why I got to hear the Yankees' homer announcers wailing, weeping, and gnashing teeth about the plague of insects in Cleveland. Twenty years ago, before a local station took 1120, I could even pull in KMOX out of St. Louis almost as well as WRKO in Boston. Is RKO putting most of their clear-channel power into the freaking ground?

This is important because I expect to be driving home tonight in the middle of World Series game 3, and I'd like to give a listen. Most days, what with Howie Carr and Rush Limbaugh and all the other wingnut bloviators on RKO, I'd really rather hear static.