BOSTON HERALD BOYCOTT – THE STATE COMMITTEE RACES EXPOSE CARR

NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS

by Lonnie Brennan

Following two newspaper “hit pieces” in the Boston Herald this past week against WRKO Conservative Radio Talk Show Host Jeffrey T. Kuhner, Kuhner struck back: He called upon his listeners to boycott Boston’s former everyman’s newspaper, the Boston Herald.

Kuhner came under attacked by afternoon shock jock Howie Carr for Kuhner’s support of conservatives and right-leaning candidates running for the Massachusetts Republican State Committee – the 80-member governing board of the nearly extinct Republican Party in Massachusetts. Republican Party voter registration hovers below 9% in the state.

For his part, Carr says he’s trying to “save the Party from the Kool Aide Jim Jones Lyons [former chairman Jim Lyons] cult” of what Carr terms “knuckleheads,” “losers,” “zombies,” “roaches,” and “termites” amongst other monikers. One of those candidates Carr smeared was a Donald J. Trump’s Angel Mom, Maureen Maloney, who lost her 23-year-old son, tragically murdered by an illegal alien.

Angel Mom Maureen Maloney, 2nd from left with President Donald J. Trump

Carr not only opposed the conservative Maloney, but provided the foundation for a new group he helped establish (run out of his studio) of young Republicans and apparently was involved in supporting several candidates with tremendous campaign funds/support/endorsements/mailings to defeat conservatives such as Maloney. Kuhner termed this “David vs. Goliath” races, but also noted that after the fight, David was still standing, with Carr failing in many of his attempts.

The source of the dark-money mailers and such remain unknown. Carr’s sudden shift to support Hillary Clinton-supporting candidates began with his support of Gov. Candidate Chris “I voted for Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump in 2016” Doughty. Doughty spent millions in a crusade to destroy the right-leaning Gov. Candidate Geoff Diehl in 2022, including dropping tens of thousands in advertising to the Carr network. Carr’s sudden vicious attacks against his former friend Diehl launched shortly after Carr pocketed the Doughty bucks.

For this State Committee race cycle, Carr added insult to injury against conservatives, Trump supporters, an Angel Mom, a retired law enforcement officer, and many other patriotic candidates in unrelenting rants laced with the words kook, crazy, deranged, pathetic, loser, weirdo, and other attacks, including repeated whipping of Kathy Lynch (who survived her re-election bid, defeating Carr’s attempt to politically assassinate the conservative).

Lynch was repeatedly called a “hag” by  Carr. With grit, she fought back and said it’s time to boycott the Carr show. She established a site asking folks to pledge against Carr. Voters responded to Carr’s bizarre beatings of Lynch, rewarding her with 68% of the vote to Carr’s Beth Lindstrom candidacy, a former failed senate candidate, who received just 32% of the tally. (Lindstrom had previously lost to Geoff Diehl in his run for senate, where she garnered only 17% of the vote despite spending in excess of $1.25 million).

Kathy Lynch not only survived the Carr onslaught and constant name-calling, but bested Carr’s endorsed candidate.

Todd Taylor (who miraculously survived the repeated onslaughts by Carr) prevailed as did many others including the Massachusetts Republican Assembly’s (MARA) North Chapter President Anthony Ventresca, a famous whipping boy of Carr. Ventresca serves as the vice-treasurer of the MassGOP, and as a whistleblower against the establishment which has refused to release requested documentation regarding purported invoices/payments to the Carr Network.

MARA is a chartered member of the national Republican Assembly, the conservative “Republican wing of the Republican Party.”

Carr did find success after repeatedly beating on MARA President Steve Fruzzetti who Carr termed a “dog walker” at every opportunity, in a disparaging, Palm Beach snobby tone. Fruzzetti, who owns a dog care business and multiple properties, for his part became the laser-focus, after Diehl, and Kuhner, of Carr’s disdain, lost his election. But, while Fruzzetti took all the incoming Carr fire, Fruzzetti  managed to provide key support to his fellow MARA members and get eight out of 10 of the MARA conservative members re-elected to the State Committee. Fruzzetti was also a vocal and visible supporter of many other conservative candidates across the state, helping more than two dozen of the winners against the Carr onslaught.

The Challenge

After getting pounded by Carr for more than 18 months, the week prior to the State Committee election, Diehl challenged Carr to a debate in any forum to discuss mano a man (Carr uses that term a lot), the races and the quality of the candidates. Carr declined the request, and for a bit seemed to focus all his fire on Diehl. Carr then demanded that Diehl debate his State Committee opponent Larry Novak. Carr brushed aside Novak’s 87-month sentence, committed to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons for laundering drug money, as he said Novak was the better candidate in the race, and had paid his debt to society.

Kuhner, for his part, followed up with a similar challenge to Carr to stop talking in veiled references about the conservative morning talk show host, be a man, and debate Kuhner on-air, on either show or both shows. Carr again declined.  Kuhner’s actions came after multiple Carr on-air meltdowns and temper-tantrum-like rants. He’s “hiding in the shadows” Kuhner said in reference to Carr’s veiled references to Kuhner, and by extension, the strange printing of at least one unsigned hit piece in the Herald against Kuhner, and Carr being the most likely author of an unsigned online “substack hit-piece” against Kuhner, and supporting those who seek to silence/fire Kuhner and get the popular talk host thrown off the air.

Post-election, Carr also took a “victory lap” and fired off one of his nasty Herald columns against Kuhner’s candidates. Prior to the election, Kuhner took direct hits on one “news” article and an unsigned editorial blasting Kuhner. This is something we’ve never seen in Boston talk show history: a talk show host/columnist, Carr, apparently using his access to a (at one time, though now greatly diminished) Boston newspaper to attack a radio host on the flagship WRKO talk radio station, or at the very least, not speak up against his newspaper, and make a correction.

Carr claimed success on his show, called himself the “terminator” and bragged how he was like an “exterminator” getting rid of “roaches and termites.” In truth, Carr’s efforts, and whoever was behind the estimated $100-400,000 spent this cycle on postcard mailings for candidates, as well as other advertising methods, failed to move the needle: before the election, the liberal establishment wing of the party was in the majority, after the election, the liberal establishment wing of the part was in the majority.  Everything pretty much stayed the same, with Carnevale picking up a few seats but with Carr failing to “exterminate” at least 33 members he sought to destroy.

Carr the Terminator/Exterminator – fails to get the mission done

Screen shot of a seemingly-fragile Carr making endorsements of two long-term liberal candidates for re-election.

Carr has seemingly never taken sides in state committee races unless he has received advertising dollars. For example, Carr wrote one of his classic personal destruction columns in 2016 against State Committee member Matt Sisk – calling him a hack’s hack and worse, condemning “Sirens Sisk” (amongst other things, Sisk used his government car lights to skirt traffic/stop signs to ease his commute), to the dreaded private sector, and describing how the pol got fired for misuse of government equipment (though then-Gov. Charlie Baker found Sisk a nice soft landing pad of a hack job in another government agency). Fast forward two years and Sisk’s re-election ads ran on the Carr network seemingly every 15 minutes. Carr endorsed Sisk and posed for photos for Sisk’s campaign.

Excerpt from Carr’s column, readily available online.

Carr endorsement of Matt Sisk in 2020 re-election bid.

During this cycle, Carr produced videos for what appeared to be close to half of the State Committee candidates (those who pledged allegiance to Party Chair Carnevale). His flips this time included endorsing a whole slate of past predominately left-leaning anti-Trump, fake Trump supporters, “payroll patriots” such as Sean Powers (the term Carr has use in the past for those who run for state committee to get hack government jobs), and other left-leaners. Carr said these candidates were “great conservatives and they support all the causes that you and I believe in.” Carr apparently gave a pass to how many of the incumbent candidates also voted 100% against the conservative slate in 10 out of 10 roll call motions recorded at a State Committee marathon meeting last year.

Carr gushed glowingly over MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale and hosted her for an extended time on his show. Carnevale sent a complaint letter to the Federal Communications Commission, in an attempt to smear and silence Kuhner after he dared to use the word “whore” to describe the Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Charlie Baker, Amy Carnevale, and other Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) who sell out to special interests and the Democrats.

Amy all aglow with former liberal Trump-hating Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker – Facebook photo screenshot

“Look, we all know who’s driving it,” [the hit pieces] Kuhner told his audience. “We all know who’s behind it. It’s pathetic. It’s sad. Anyway, look, the Herald is a joke. Its circulation numbers are, as I said, maybe what, [equivalent to] one second of this show? I’m not kidding. I mean, that’s how bad it is. It went bankrupt in 2017. It’s a dying paper. It’s a corrupt paper. It is a mouthpiece for the swamp, the RINO Swamp here in Massachusetts, and it’s now become a shameless mouthpiece for that RINO GOP Chair Amy Carnevale.”

Boston Herald Summary Daily Circulation Numbers, 2004 – 2023 – Source Boston Broadside compilation from Audit circulation reports/journals.

“And now,” Kuhner continued, “Amy Carnevale, the Republican establishment, shamefully the Globe and the Herald, are all along with really this pathetic effort to get me silenced. They’re part of this ridiculous effort to get me taken off the air. This is a war on freedom of speech.”

“This is a war on freedom of expression,” Kuhner emphasized, and admonished: “And, journalists, and this should be, you all should know this: you’re there to challenge power. You’re there to act as a check and balance on power. You’re there to expose the abuses of power, not to profit from power, not to take checks from power, not to stand there and do their bidding. And sadly, as I said yesterday on X, and I am going to keep saying it over and over again because it’s true, the Democrat Boston Globe, the RINO Swamp Boston Herald, and of course Howie Carr have formed an unholy alliance in order to try to destroy me and my career.”

Twitter – The Kuhner Report

“What are you so afraid of? Really? What are you so afraid of? Because I dare to challenge Amy Carnevale? Because I’m calling her out as a lobbyist who’s got a clear conflict of interest? Because I’m calling out the fact that she is a RINO who pretends to be a conservative and that she has stabbed conservative after conservative after conservative in the back, and that her vision for the Massachusetts Republican Party is that of a Chris Sununu or a Chris Christie or a John Sununu. And these are the events that she has personally hosted for these people. [Carnevale held fundraising events with each of the Trump-haters]. And so, because I’m exposing how much she and the corrupt Republican establishment are beholden to the donor class, and this is why they keep betraying conservatives and frankly voters in this state again and again and again,” Kuhner explained.

“Now you want to take me off the air because I use the term “whore” when referring, not just to her, but to Chris Doughty and to [former liberal Governor and Trump-hating] Charlie Baker, and to former Governor [homosexual marriage promoter and Trump-hating] Mitt Romney, and to [Trump-hating] Bill Weld, and to many others. Notice most of them are men, stupid!””

“So, they want to play this ridiculous gotcha game. Now, I wouldn’t play that game if I were them. And I’ll tell you why. Because the smears and libels that have been pedaled by the Globe, by the Herald, and I’m going to call him out, Howie Carr, are a hell of a lot worse than using the term “whore,” which, by-the-way, Miriam Webster dictionary – look it up – Ding Dongs – the dictionary, online. Look it up. It doesn’t just mean a prostitute who exchanges sex from money. There she is crying in the FCC letter. Oh, it’s so demeaning and degrading to all women. No, I’m just calling you out, Amy. No one else. No one’s attacking all women. Nothing misogynistic or sexist about it. You fraud. You, phony, you fraud you. Oh, it also says the term has been broadened to mean someone who is for sale and who abandons their principles in search of money or power.”

“Look it up,” Kuhner said. “Miriam Webster Dictionary dictionaries online, Oxford Dictionary –  so come on, let’s not play these silly childish games. Okay?”

Former Mass. Gov., failed presidential candidate, and Trump-hating Mitt Romney with Judy Crocker, Mass. State Committeewoman, defender of the “unwritten rule” of having incumbent Republicans hide, and not endorse Republican candidates against sitting Democrats)

Judy Crocker – 2023, Boston Broadside Photo

“Now look, you want to sell your soul. Sell your soul, man. Howie Carr. I’m calling you out. You want to endorse Judy Crocker on the Cape, who literally on the record said, this is what she said. By the way, she won her election last night for state committee [Carr produced a re-election radio ad for the Crockers]. I hope all of you are proud. This one [Judy] who’s been there forever. She’s like a walking fossil. She’s been there forever. A political fossil. She’s a political fossil. She said, there is an unwritten rule, and she supports this unwritten rule that Republicans should never challenge incumbent Democrats [she detailed that while Republicans can challenge sitting Democrats, there’s an unwritten rule that elected Republican offices will not endorse the Republicans running against sitting Democrats – the so-called ‘Democrat protection plan’ unveiled by WXTK long-term talk host Ed Lambert last year, getting Judy to state it firmly and clearly on the record in an explosive rant against the Lambert. Judy accused Lambert of damaging the Republican Party by exposing the Democrat protection plan on-air).

Referring to the Democrat protector Judy Crocker, Kuhner said “That’s who you [Carr] want to endorse. Hey, it’s your business. You endorsed Larry Novak against Jeff Diehl, literally a convicted felon who had to go to jail for God knows how many years because he was laundering drug money. So now you’re supporting convicted criminals, sorry, ex former convicted criminals, and you’re going to lecture me on the term, oh, ‘he used the word whore’ to describe the RINOS. Well, you go around slandering people: Door-Dash, Jim Jones Lyons, God knows how many people you’ve dumped on for God knows how many years, but you’re not man enough to say it to my face. You’re not man enough to put your name to anything. So, it’s the Herald. It’s some article in Substack with no one’s name to it.”

MISSING 18 MINUTES

From a reader: “The interview Geoff and Jeff was fantastic!  I am so glad you saved it.  It’s proof that iHeart censors, they can’t weasel out of this one.”

In an unprecedented move, management at WRKO silenced the voice of Geoff Diehl, editing out the podcast of nearly 18 minutes of time that Diehl was on the Kuhner radio show, calling out Carr for his 18 months of attacks against Diehl, and challenging Carr to debate the issues once and for all. The radio station silenced Diehl on its podcasts, Rumble channel and other podcasts. The Broadside retained a copy of those 18 minutes and posted it online, but the 18 minute rebuttal to 18 months of personal attacks against Diehl was pretty much scrubbed from most places on the internet.

Following the “whore” comment, iHeart (owner of WRKO, WXTK and 855 other radio stations across the U.S. as for late 2023) apparently let WXTK talk host Ed Lambert know that he WOULD converse with Carnevale on his show for an extended segment the day before the State Committee elections (at 8:00 a.m.). The station also allowed Geoff Diehl “equal time” the day OF the election, at 9:00 a.m. Both conversations were upbeat and cordial and what some have called “cream puff, face-saving interviews, meant to placate all sides, and simmer down the Carr rants against Kuhner, and Kuhner’s exposure of Carr as a pay-to-play entertainer, Palm Beach, Florida talk shock jock, owned by the highest bidder.

The circulation of the Herald had dropped another 23% last year to the 16,000 range. It’s expected to go sub-10,000 daily editions next year.

One reader to the Broadside shared “This is classic from someone who owned the market as Howie has for years and is being overshadowed by Jeff.”

Another reader similarly noted “Never could understand Carr’s flip-flopping with it all. He seems to have lost a step (or two) since he moved out of the state; probably jealous of Jeff Kuhner’s increasing popularity with Everyman (and woman.)”

At a slippage rate of 23%/year, the Herald is estimated to slip to approximately 14,400 daily editions in March. If the slide continues, they’ll be  either sub-10,000, or between 10,000 and 11,000 copies this time next year, or worse.

The Herald is owned by a New York hedge fund (Alden Global Capital) that owns the Colorado-based newspaper group (MNG Enterprises, Inc. DBA Digital First Media) that owns the Boston Herald.

Digital First has an apparent scheme to transition all media to online and runs the liberal Denver Post and many other publications, sharing resources, and materials amongst the toned-down papers. Alden Capital has grown to become the second largest newspaper owner in America.  Last year, a Soros-backed company purchased roughly 50 newspapers in Maine, including three large dailies, essentially controlling the bulk of the print media/editorial content in that state.