Black Mass: The Boston Globe, The Boston U.S. Attorney, and the Devil’s Deal

I have written before how the Globe compromised the Boston U.S. Attorney Ortiz shortly after she took office naming her its Bostonian of the Year. At that time it pumped her head  full of dreams of higher office: a governor’s seat or a seat in the U.S. Senate. She was aware that cooperating with the Globe would help her advance her political connections. She seemed ready to listen to the drum beat from the Globe’s offices on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester and fall in step with its demands. A tacit understanding appears to have developed: she would do what the newspaper wanted in its endless request for a Pulitzer prize or another movie; it would do whatever it could to advance her career and protect her.

The Huffington Post which noticed the questionable relationship between Ortiz and the Globe wrote a follow-up column in which i was mentioned suggesting the reaction of the Boston media proved its point. To date none in the Boston media think this is worthwhile mentioning. The Globe’s response to it by Joan Venocchi ducked the issue of its incestuous relationship with Ortiz.

There is widespread fear in the Boston media of the Globe.  That is the big corruption story in Boston – how the Globe and the U.S. Attorney have made the Devil’s Deal which gives the newspaper the right to decide upon prosecutions. I have decried this arrangement for years. I first became aware of it during the trial of FBI Agent John Connolly.

Corrupt FBI agent John Morris was testifying how he disclosed to the Globe that Whitey Bulger was an FBI informant. He admitted that was a violation of his duty as an FBI agent and also that the public disclosure in a newspaper that Whitey was an informant might very well bring about Whitey’s murder. He admitted that he felt as long as Whitey was out there he was in peril because he had taken money from Whitey and in exchange gave him information about investigations against him and believed Whitey might have recorded him.

He testified that he did not have many friends in the FBI. But he did point out he had one friend who was Gerry O’Neill of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team who he had been feeding inside information to. It would turn out he had been doing this for a long time and that when he found no criminal involvement in one investigation O’Neill urged him not to close it out since the Globe wanted to keep it open.

It intrigued me that the newspaper would be so closely connected with the doings of the federal government. I watched as time went on. I saw how the Boston U.S. attorney’s office gave the Globe the secret grand jury testimony of Bill Bulger. Their animus toward him was clear, as I also discovered during Agent Connolly’s trial. They apparently made a deal to work together to get him.

I have mentioned before how it was the Globe that demanded Probation Commissioner John O’Brien be indicted by Ortiz’s office and he and two associates were for racketeering even though the proof showed they were involved in patronage– that matter is scheduled for argument in the court of appeals later this month. I mentioned how the newspaper complained about a mean taxi cab owner and Ortiz caused a raid on his place even though no crimes were involved.

Two recent cases show the ongoing Devil’s Deal: the investigation of Senator Brian A. Joyce. The Globe gets inside information from the prosecutors about the subpoenas being issued as is shown here and here. Much of  the content in its story against Joyce seemed to come from prosecutorial leaks.

The most significant deal involves thwarting the will of the people of Boston in their plan to oust Boston Mayor Martin Walsh from office or at least make sure he does not get reelected. The Globe went to court to have a judge order the mayor to disclose whether the mayor was subpoenaed and what the subpoenas asked for. I have suggested that it already knows this and in the past would have routinely published it. But now because more and more people are awakening to the Globe/Ortiz Devil’s deal it needed cover.

The judge gave the Globe an astonishingly quick hearing . He ordered the mayor to give the information over to the Globe unless the U.S. attorney objected. He forced her hand. If she did not object it would be clear she wanted the mayor embarrassed; fortunately, she did object. The Globe cannot write the story about the subpoenas without jeopardizing the Devil’s deal.

Finally, two intrepid reporters at a national news service, the Huffington Post, who have been watching Ortiz since her ill-founded treatment of Aaron Swartz have noticed the connection. They have lifted the lid and exposed the Devil’s deal. No longer is it just this one small voice shouting out how wrong it is for a private money-making organization to be controlling federal prosecutors or for the federal government to be working to help a private enterprise make money.

Hopefully more reporters will find the courage to challenge this sordid arrangement. The media is supposed to be a watchdog on the government. It is not supposed to be a lap dog wagging its tail to please it in exchange for being fed by it.