The Globe and the Bay State Banner Complement Each Other

One reasons that reporters for the dailies should read the neighborhood and community papers is that the latter often catch nuances that bigfoot reporters miss.

There was nothing inaccurate about the Globe's coverage of Monday's endorsement of Floon by forty black clergy, but the endorsement, was put in better context by the Bay State Banner:

Last week, black pastors active in the Black Ministerial Alliance and Ten Point Coalition endorsed Menino.

Menino has enjoyed high favorability in Boston’s black community, securing more than 60 percent of the vote in predominantly black wards and precincts in this year’s preliminary election.

Having said that, I give the Globe credit for covering the anti-Menino no-confidence vote given by Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers as a separate article, and by noting that the unanimous no-confidence vote of sixty members did not necessarily reflect the feelings of 300+ members. Nevertheless, the Banner Article caught the political nuance involved:

While the officers did not endorse Menino’s rival in the mayoral race, City Councilor Michael Flaherty, their announcement Monday morning followed a press conference where a group of black ministers joined community activists from the Latino, Asian and Cape Verdean communities to publicly endorse the Flaherty-Yoon campaign Monday.

Note the absence of "community activists from the black community" in the Banner's reporting of the Floon endorsement. What happened, and what the Banner reported, was an incidence of clergy and activists speaking their personal and institutional preferences, not speaking for any geographic or demographic community.

What would be good local political reporting is an analysis of the differing agendae among clergy, activists, and the grassroots as reflected by differing political choices and the reasons thereof...