As anyone who reads this blog has likely noticed by now, I don’t go out of my way to rip peers in the media. Granted, I’ll take a Skip Bayless shot every now and then. But I also know how hard this biz is. Be it Skip or Lupica or whoever, I’ve never—never—wished for someone’s demise, or firing, or whatever. Come day’s end, we all have bills to pay, kids to feed, lives to live.
That said, this morning I’m making an exception: The Boston Herald should fire a columnist named Howie Carr.
Before today, I’d never heard of Carr. Then I saw this column, which he wrote. It is, hands down, the most spiteful, hateful thing I’ve read in many a year.
I actually don’t think Carr should be canned because of his moronic views, or because of any political leanings. No, he should be fired because he’s a joke. Columnists need to be taken seriously, but who can interpret this as anything beyond Type-A inanity? In this age, at this time, you’re happy people are losing their jobs? You’re rooting for the demise of a newspaper?
Has Carr ever read the Globe? Has he ever read the Herald? Political leanings be damned, one is a tremendous paper, one, well, sucks. One is responsible for some of the great voices of our time. One gives us … Howie.
I suppose I’m just venting, because I have trouble with people rooting for others to be fired. I get newspaper wars. But right now, in 2009, the only war is industry vs. reality. And it’s not a very close battle. Carr … the Herald … the Globe … the Times … me — we all lose.
A final thought: One thing that irks me about Carr—and many of the Herald‘s voices—is the racial undertones to much of what is written. The newspaper has long been unambiguously hostile toward African-Americans. The writers do it in a very subtle way. A “Those people” sort of thing, so when people say, “that’s racist,” they can reply, “We weren’t talking only about blacks …” I’ve seen it a million times, but never anywhere more than the Herald. Shameful.
