fullcortex.net

Hall of fame

Columnist

Howie Carr, Boston Herald

We don’t tune into his radio show, and frankly we don’t want to. But after several seasons of phoning it in, Howie’s back on the hack attack. (Yes, he sometimes writes for us, too. So sue us.)

Business columnists

Steve Bailey and Steven Syre, Boston Globe

Syre and Bailey’s “Boston Capital” column is the closest thing in these parts to the Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street.”

Political columnist

Brian Mooney, Boston Globe

When we gave this award to Mooney’s “Political Circuit’ column two years ago, we were secretly hoping the Globe would expand it to two days a week. It did. Now we’re secretly hoping it gives him Barnicle’s job.

Sports columnist

Art Martone,

Providence Journal-Bulletin Art who? With Peter Gammons becoming more and more mired in trivia, Martone, the author of “Art’s Notebook,” found at www.projo.com, Martone has taken the crown as the intelligent fan’s baseball columnist of choice.

Headline

“Felonious monk had heavenly resume” -Herald

The tabloid had fun with the saga of former Milton shrink Michael Dongarra, who was arrested by the FBI in a Hingham abbey where he was impersonating a monk. Turned out Dongarra had a history of impersonating Catholic and Anglican priests and stealing religious artifacts.

Barometer of conventional wisdom

Dan Kennedy, Boston Phoenix

For a while, we considered giving the media scribe the Comeback Player of the Year award for his splendid deconstruction of the Globe’s metro pages and his thoughtful coverage of our headline controversy. But Kennedy reverted to form as a mouthpiece of conventional wisdom with his boneheaded critique of Stephen Brill’s piece in Brill’s Content, and, more shamefully, his suggestion in the case of Mike Barnicle that there is a “statute of limitations” on makings things up. This is a media critic?

TV news station

WHDH, Channel 7

Yes, it’s splashy, tawdry, and superficial. But that’s the point-it’s television.

TV news anchor

Kim Carrigan, Channel 7

Last year we said she managed to be articulate, competent, and attractive without being a noxious newsbabe. She’s given us no reason to change our mind.

Product placement

Guinness

A pint of which was in Ray Flynn’s hand during much of his 15 minutes of shame on 60 Minutes.

Radio talk show

Car Talk, WBUR

For those of us who can’t tell the difference between a camcorder and a camshaft, Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers (aka Tom and Ray Magliozzi), are the next best thing to a AAA membership. For those of us old enough to care, they hark back to the days when a woody meant a stationwagon. Do we love ‘em? Dewey and Howe.

Crisis mismanagement

George Regan

During a visit to the state house last winter, Regan wisely stepped in and saved his client, Coretta Scott King, from embarrassment when tax cheat Diane Wilkerson tried to have her picture taken alongside the civil rights heroine. Wilkerson later accused Regan of leaking the story to the Globe and the Herald-both of which published similar accounts of his brilliant maneuver- and demanded a public apology.

Use of poetic license

Patricia Smith, Boston Globe

Although, looking back on her columns, we would have liked them better if they rhymed.

Prosaic Use of Poetic license

Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe

Howie Carr said it best long ago when he dubbed Barnicle’s posh suburban digs the Lincoln House of Corrections.

Kept secret

Why the Globe, after having found fabrications in numerous Smith columns in 1995, submitted her work for a Pulitzer this year.