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- - Leftyblogs MA Blogroll - Almost all of my favorite lefty blogs in Massachusetts can be found here. Linking here keeps my own blogroll short but still up to date! Below are some other MA blogs which are not listed at LB.
- H2Otown (Watertown, MA)
- MargeBLOG (Williamstown)
- Michael Forbes Wilcox (Western MA)
- The Gazebo (Worcester area)
Media in Lowell
- Community Connections The online archive of many of WUML's radio shows.
- LTC :: Our community cable access channel (8 & 10). Excellent people, I've worked with them before.
- Open Source :: Chris Lydon's new show, broadcast on WUML and WGBH locally.
- The Lowell Sun :: Love it or hate it, it's the big newspaper in town.
- WCAP radio :: Talk radio in Lowell - still locally owned, and in transition.
- WUML :: The student- and community-run radio station of UMass-Lowell. Lynne hosts a radio show, Thinking Out Loud, 10am on Fridays.
Media in MA
Other Daily Reads
Politics Online
- City Council Agenda Past City Council agendas, posted in a mostly timely manner
- Lowellma.gov Official city website
Progressive Local Orgs
Snark and politics
The Arts in Lowell
- 119 Gallery - Art gallery with exhibitions of many local artists, interesting events, and living, breathing culture.
- Arts League of Lowell (ALL) - Artist community group, a recent but welcome addition to the arts scene in Lowell.
- Brush Art Gallery - Come and meet working artists in their natural habitats!
- Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL) - Great local calendar of events.
- Lowell Opera Company - Community opera.
- Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra - Local community orchestra.
- Lowell Poetry Network
- Lowell Rocks - List of live music events
- Merrimack Repertory Theatre - A local theatre "presenting an exciting mix of contemporary and new plays in historic downtown Lowell."
- OUtlET - Paper and online 'zine making a splash locally with events in art, poetry, music, and everything in between!
- Revolving Museum Contemporary, local, public art space with a plethora of children's programs and art by and for the community.
- The Fine Print - Socially aware, themed, arts and issues periodic publication available throughout Lowell.
- The Image Theater - Theatre company which puts on all original works by local playwrights.
- Whistler House Museum - A great collection of contemporaries of Whistler at his historic birthplace.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Isn’t Nick Caraganis the Sun Travel Editor?
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Slots at horse and dog tracks would be an absolute mess. I’m kind of leaning towards allowing a few big-scale, vegas-style “real” casinos as a means of clean entertainment for people. Someplace you could take your grandmother to for a nice steak once in a while. But throwing some slot machines in a place like a horse or dog track would just be one more means to squeeze cash out of the people who think that’s a good way to make a living. I hate to pass judgement, but those tracks are dirty and nasty. Trust me, I wouldn’t let grandma eat anything I bought at the track.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Nice photo gallery on g-biscuits website!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I need to make two points clearer.
The most pressing conflict for Campanini is that slots at Suffolk equals larger purses when his horses win there. Which is the reason they located the stable in New Jersey, as the racetrack nearby does, and the prizes are larger as a result. There’s a direct bearing between Class II gambling legalization and what Campanini stands to gain as a result.
Secondarily, I call on a new editor for the Lowell Sun to be from outside the Merrimack Valley, not because we do not have quality people to promote from within (because we do) but because look what happened the last time they chose from the Sun’s own staff - we went from one cronyist to another. Promoting from within would be great if we could trust the publisher to pick wisely. There’s many great top-level people at the Sun who’d do the right thing if they were editor. However, I’m afraid they could be bypassed for another Jim Campanini.
If a new editor were brought on, one that had a good reputation as editor elsewhere and had no ties to the establishment politicos in our area, it would be a shot in the arm for journalism around here and a declaration that these conflicts of interests are not welcome.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
a new editor would be nice, but i’d be content enough to reactivate my subscription if they could prove they can actually deliver the paper at least five days out of the week. and if i could get it by sundown, that’d be even better. i realize that’s all a lot to ask for though.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I bought that paper a few times when I moved here, it seems like kind of a right wing propaganda rag. And the $91 in coupons touted on the Sunday edition is a joke. The website is okay for getting local news but the town’s own website is just as fast, which is impressive for a municipality, not impressive for a NEWSpaper. I like the “gourmet girl” section of the webpage with the exception of the obnoxious photo and the silly jibber jabber about going to the mall and stuff.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Jim Campanini’s job is to have an oppinion on the issues going on and write editorial.(The gambling issue is rather a large one) He has a very vested interest and also love for the horses so obviously this will show in the paper. No one said that his oppinion would agree with yours nor should it. It is very easy to see that your anti casinos but once again everyone that does not agree with you should not be ousted from their job.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
kpem: Campanini’s job first and foremost is NOT to merely have an opinion. It’s to run a paper - and he does so in a fashion as to suppress information we the people need in order to understand the world around us, whether that’s because he has some political agenda, or something like this, where he’s got a monetary conflict of interest. A huge no-no in journalism.
Yes, beyond that, he can have an opinion and state it (though his arguments are nearly always full of big logical holes). But journalistic integrity says you should always disclose all your conflicts of interest so that people can make up their own minds where your loyalties lie.
You really didn’t read anything I wrote. I do not want him fired for having an opinion that’s not mine. I don’t even want him fired because his opinions are badly argued or pathetic (even though they often are, and it’s indicative of the rest of his flaws as an editor). I want him fired for the constant conflict of interest that informs his judgment with the paper that he gets to make all the final decisions about. About the information he suppresses about our political process, or the policies that our state undertakes.
In fact, there was one that I caught in last Sunday’s column that I didn’t have a chance to write about, but now I think I will take the damn time. It’s constantly the case that this guy will conveniently ignore correct and factual information in order to make you, the reader, think a certain way.
That’s not a newspaper, that’s a goddamned Potemkin village.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I figures out what the Lowell Sun is all about when I read its coverage of two crime stories.
One was about a home invasion, in which the victims (who were beaten and robbed) were two Latinos from an inner-city neighborhood. In every single story about the crime, the investigation, the arrests, the indictment, and the trial, the writer told us that “it is believed the victims has marijuana in the apartment.”
The other was about that horrible double murder of the two young white men in a Cross Point parking lot, in what was determined to be a drug deal gone bad. (Poor kids. They were maybe 20.) The lead editorial in one edition’s paper was given over to the story, and included a declaration that we shouldn’t speculate on the motive for the crime.
Right wing rag? Oh hell yeah.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
“Jim Campanini’s job is to have an oppinion on the issues going on and write editorial.”
kpem–
you either have no idea that campanini’s job is editor-in-chief of the or you have no idea what the job is of an editor-in-chief versus an editorial page editor.
either way, your argument on how he should conduct himself in that position is just flat-out wrong, regardless of how one feels about the casino issue.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
i clicked submit comment too soon. the ‘of the’ in that last post should be deleted. or you could add ‘paper’ after ‘of the’ and then it would make sense. yeah.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I had to wonder the other day when I was reading about the home invasion by that trucker again. It happened in what? July? And now it got a full page and a quarter or something. A page and a quarter on something that wasn’t news. Front page even. Lead story even. Look… it was terrible and all that but how slow a news day does it have to be to give a non news, non contemporary, no impact story a front page lead and over a page of space. I appreciate Dan Phelps and all, but gimme a break.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Just looked at the article again. Over 2,200 words. Makes for a very long web page too. It was as if the paper was trying to run a movie of the week.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Mr L: You appreciate Dan Phelps?? You like cold toilet seats too??
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
OK… appreciate may be strong. Most of the time I can ignore him. He did have that one article he did on the Cox thing that preached some sanity and reality (I think Mr. C was out of town betting on horses at the time… otherwise it never would have gotten through the agenda firewall) so I have to give credit when due.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
I disagree with the idea of being outside the Merrimack Valley. Maybe just being outside the Sun’s inner circle would alleviate some of Lynne’s concerns. However, part of being a local paper is to have a connection to the community it serves. It’s bad enough the Sun is already owned by a Denver-based company. I believe it’s beneficial for news staff to know the community and be a part of its fabric.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 am
Not too concerned about the editor and two employees owning racehorses as an editorial bias, although it’s a pretty poor personnel practice for the head of a major department of any company to be involved in speculative investments with employees. I hear the last Sun editor used to run regular gambling junkets to Connecticut. What is it with the Sun employees and promoting gambling by the employees? Just wait until someone gets addicted…
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Lynne,
I just feel that you are also talking about “a non news, non contemporary, no impact story” when bringing up the horses. I just wonder how much of this recent negative writing on the sun has to do with the cool vote. If you don’t like the methodolgy of the sun do not buy it.(I don’t as I find it to be noninformative) I read the Globe and my husband the times.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
“a non news, non contemporary, no impact story”
That was my line. Besides… it pretty much describes the horse racing obsession at the Sun. Seems reasonable to object to a news organization obsessed with non-news.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
“it is believed the victims has marijuana in the apartment.”
I tried to google this qoute and it showed nothing??
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Again I ask because I do not know.. If you google horse or racing under the Lowell Sun you do not get many responses or stories???
February 24th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Lynne,
That trucker home invasion article you referenced was in response to a significant court date. Not sure if your just callous or it’s beyond the reach of your insular (I’m looking out for you cause I know better) bubble, but it was an attempted murder. The guy is also suspected of stabbing a 38-year-old Bloomsbury, N.J. woman to death. And I quote you… it was terrible and all that?
Not news… maybe you give us another more note worthy story, than a psycho and the family who fended him off.
No please, conspiracies about people owning race horses. Blah, Blah GOB network, Blah, Blah COX, It’s your integrity that’s in question, I understand you need to present blog fodder but you could at least try and temper your agenda, it permeates every thread you begin and end.
Maybe you should start re-reading your own words… I’ll try to stay within the thread and summarize them as horse shit.
February 24th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Do you read? Not Lynne… Mr. Lynne.
Callous… If you insist.. Court date? Significant? Sure. Over a page of coverage significant… probably milking the story donchyathink. Terrible event? Yeah. Said so. One can feel the event was terrible and still feel that the coverage was disappointing. Don’t need a degree in media studies to figure that out. How many times do we see tragedy over-milked by the media? Lacey Peterson?, OJ Simpson?, Halloway? How much news was it? Over a page? Doubt it. Terrible? Of course? Over-milked by the Sun. Definitely. Of course your mileage may vary and are entitled to your own opinion. My opinion is hat the event was horrible and the Sun’s coverage, in this case, was regrettable. I’m entitled to that opinion too. The criticism was on the Sun… not the victims. Sorry you can’t see the difference.
February 24th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Mr. Lynne, sorry, it’s your honorific I omitted, rest assured both you and Lynne’s agendas are not confused.
I’ve frequently read this space and enjoy the responses that generate because some seem to be brought with genuine concern for Lowell.
Take this for what you think its worth from a completely objective Lowell RESIDENT. I just live here, have all my life. YOU and other LEFTinLowell moderators are no better than the Lowell Sun.
You claim to inform and by way of imposing of your personal feelings and agendas confuse with no benefit. Absolutely no different than Campanini, Phelps, or Caulfield.
February 24th, 2008 at 2:34 am
If LiL’s “agendas” are “obvious” then LiL is already doing something better than Campanini… its being open and transparent. Imposing? Exactly how is anybody “imposing”? Do you lack free will? Do LiL moderators have opinions? Sure. Their blog, they can state them. Lynne doesn’t want Casinos not because she owns anything or is friends with anyone that would profit in the absence of them… she looked into it and came put out her thoughts. Campanini? Just saw some stuff and said so. Said her opinion as well. Better than that she said her reasons for her opinion. But by all means, feel free to point out whatever it is about LiL’s “friends” and “agendas” they hide from you. Show that and you can show an M.O. that’s similar to Campanini’s.
If you really feel that strongly about issues in Lowell, by all means put yourself out there like Lynne did and start a blog.
Also… lest anyone want to bring up horse racing again…. I submit that the average reader of the Sun’s sports section knows way more about racing’s off-season than anyone who’s only source of information is their daily paper could reasonably expect. Really, how many inches a week does horse racing’s off-season probably deserve in a sports section?
February 24th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Funny, I thought I was a resident? And Mimi? And KRS? And a whole lot of the other regulars on here?
Yeah, there’s no “attitude” against newcomers in the city…nor unwarranted resentment…right. Yep.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
His latest piece for your consideration, in todays’ Sun,
http://www.lowellsun.com/jimcampanini/ci_8359041
February 25th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Well he is defenitely pro gambling. What are the arguments against it? Construction companies are my clients so I tend to agree with pro construction jobs.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
No one should claim casinos support economic development, for all the jobs, all the profit, all the licensing fees and all the taxes returned to the State come from the people.
However, if many of those people now contribute to the Connecticut and Rhode Island economies, that wasted money can be partially retained in the State. And if the casinos are well done resorts, they may even attract visitors from other states and other countries to help fuel the system. Since Massachusetts can already claim to be a destination place, providing a supplementary reason to come here and spend money may actually be a gain for the State.