The Boston Phoenix - decadent?

Tom Duggan and I have e-mail arguments on a regular basis. Often they are well reasoned debates about issues that both Tom and I have deep, heartfelt disagreements on. Sometimes they are superficial, occasionally they degenerate into glorified pissing contests. An unwritten understanding we've had over the years is that exchanges we have over private email stay, for the most part, private. I also believe that regardless of how heated an argument gets the first one to attack the other person (instead of the persons position or ideas) loses. Our recent exchange over the Boston Phoenix is one that Tom saw fit to drag into the public arena on his weekly radio program, "Paying Attention" on WCAP.

The argument started after I linked 2 articles from the Phoenix to my Facebook page. Tom's comments basically stated that the Phoenix was a decadent, left wing newspaper and that the National Enquirer provided better news coverage. One need only do a Google search on the Phoenix to learn that is has won dozens of awards for its news coverage and provides some of the best coverage of the arts, entertainment and media in the Boston area as well as first rate reporting. It was the paper that broke the clergy sex abuse scandal and while it is an alternative paper complete with an "Adult" section, it is hardly decadent.

For the sake of argument, lets take a look at this weeks Phoenix; For starters YES there is an adult section - let's put that aside for a moment (Tom claims it's pornographic, well see about that). Hmmm front page, coverage of the struggling Rose Art Museum and the possibility that Brandies University may sell it (Page 29), snippets about stories inside on film, music, the Dali Lama in Foxboro. Nothing decadent here...it must be inside. A full page ad for the House of Blues, we will see many full and half page ads throughout the paper for local clubs, concert venues, museums, theaters, etc.

We find extensive coverage of the troubles at the Boston Globe, the Dali Lama's visit to Massachusetts and holding court at Gillette stadium, MIT's media lab and the latest breakthroughs in music technology, a story on Dewaun Parker a graduate of Berkley (school of music) and his work with Dr. Dre (THAT must be the decadent stuff), a review of newly released films including Angels and Daemons, reviews of local theater action including Grey Gardens-the Musical. Local restaurant reviews, club listings, sports, Pretty tame stuff, on the back page there is an interview with former adult film star Sasha Grey, but not because she is a porn star, but because she is attempting to cross over into mainstream films. To say that the National Enquirer is a better source of journalistic excellence is, at best, a bad joke.

The letters-to-the-Editor are both supportive and critical of the Phoenix's recent editorial urging that Jay Severin not be allowed to return to the airwaves on WTKK (that was one of the pieces I linked to Facebook that started all of this). The editorial takes former Vice President Dick Cheney to task for defending torture and working the cable news show circuit attacking President Obama. The Phoenix is a liberal-left paper to be sure and it makes no bones about it but it is tame by most standards. In 2000 the Phoenix endorsed Al Gore over Ralph Nader for president, hardly a left wing position.

Now on to that "pornographic" Adult section. The cover model this week actually looks less "slutty" than usual, pretty, curvy, quite healthy, rather "normal"and sporting a bikini, she is about as pornographic as a sears catalog photo. The ads run the gambit from telephone "chat" lines to escort services, every taste can be catered to; gay, strait, transgendered and every flavor and combination imaginable. There are ads from adult bookstores in the area and mail order paraphernalia is easily available. The pictures that accompany the ad are provocative, titillating and appropriately blocked out in the right spots. They are suggestive and surely not suitable for kids or adolescents but they are also clearly NOT pornographic. There are no graphic depictions of sex, no frontal nudity, nothing that crosses the line into porn. One thing Tom and I both know well is what porn looks like, believe me, this isn't it.

The Phoenix is niche paper. It's liberal editorially, covers news and events from an alternative or progressive vantage point. It covers the arts, entertainment, academia, the club scene. It is in the same vein of the Village Voice and like the Voice, is quite honest about what it is (and is not). Comparing it to the Globe or (laughingly) the Valley Patriot or the Enquirer is pointless. Several things should be obvious; The Phoenix is very good at what it does, the quality of it's journalism is excellent, it is far from pornographic and it is not "decadent".