Outrage Of The Week (Make That Year)

Massachusetts, a sex offender’s best friend:

NEW BEDFORD – A high-level sex offender who recently moved to New Bedford has been arrested and charged with raping a 6-year-old boy in the public library, police said today.

Corey Saunders, 26, was arrested just after 5 p.m. Wednesday after allegedly assaulting the boy, police said. The suspect lured the boy away from the children’s section to a secluded area of the building, police said.

The boy’s mother was in another part of the library using a computer.

A librarian who became suspicious alerted the boy’s mother.

Once the mother and the librarian learned what took place, they called police. Police found Saunders near the library a short time later.

Police have surveillance video taken from inside the library, New Bedford police Lt. Jeffrey Silva said.

Saunders is charged with rape of a child by force, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and enticing a child. He is being held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Feb. 7.

Saunders, who was convicted in 2001 of child rape and assault and battery on a child, is classified by the state as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most likely to re-offend.

Just a reminder, by the way: public libraries are not day-care centers. They are no safer by themselves in the children’s room than in any other public place. Too often parents make this mistake. Creepy weirdos often hang out in libraries.

The news media ought to point this out in any coverage.

UPDATE: New details are in tonight and the story is sickeningly familiar. Once again, a Massachusetts judge has underscored the primitive and backward nature of our warped and thoroughly corrupt judicial system:

Moments after he allegedly attacked a 6-year-old boy in a library, New Bedford police arrested a registered level 3 sex offender who was sprung from jail just 14 months ago by a judge over the protests of three psychologists.

[...]

Saunders is a former foster child who was raised as a ward of the state since age 12, according to published reports at the time of his 1999 arrest. He was in an Attleboro foster home less than seven hours when he tried to rape a 7-year-old boy living there. The boy’s mother intervened and Saunders was arrested.

New Bedford police said two years later Saunders was convicted of indecent assault and battery of a child and attempted rape.

When he was set to be released in December 2006, prosecutors tried to get Saunders held as a sexually dangerous person. Three expert psychologists told Superior Court Judge Richard Moses that Saunders was an “extremely sexually dangerous” predator, according to police.

Moses was appointed to the Superior Court in December 2003 under acting Gov. Jane Swift. A message left at a number listed for Moses was not returned. E-mails to the Executive Office of Public Safety were not answered.

We’re well aware of Swift’s dubious track record, but what about our current governor? Do you really think he would dare to reform the Bay State’s sick judicial system? Not bloody likely.

Any local talk show host not screaming about this Friday is a moron.

Book On Jerry Williams To Be Released Soon

Wish I had more information on this, but the Amazon box to the right (scroll down a bit) gives details on Burning Up the Air: Jerry Williams, Talk Radio, And The Life In-Between, which will be released soon.

The cover shows Williams inside WRKO’s studios (circa ?) and is written by Steve Elman and Alan Tolz.

It sounds very exciting, but I haven’t yet heard from the authors about their project. Sure wouldn’t mind seeing a review copy and press packet.

Priorities

I am much more interested in understanding why a five-year-old boy choked to death on a local skool bus than watching local TV news bubbleheads continue their mindless Super Bowl hype.

McCain Uses Herald Against Romney

McCain’s smug and arrogant tone was tough enough to take during the CNN GOP debate, but the kicker was his reference to obtaining an endorsement from the “very, very conservative” Boston Herald.

It made me sick to think McCain was able to use the Herald as a tool against Mitt. So why did the paper make such a foolish pick?

I think it’s been years since the Herald has been “very, very conservative.” Since then, it has failed to adequately forge its own path, instead sometimes positioning itself as the Globe Lite.

I’ve stood up for the Herald many times, but its endorsement of McCain was truly boneheaded. The Beacon Hill elitists still look down on the paper, so why bother trying to win them over?

Howie On The Felon

I’m hearing from some that Howie Carr has been oddly quiet regarding The Felon’s latest troubles. Is that true, or have we missed something he’s said?

Wasserman Takes Shot At Felon, Police Group

A big thumbs-up to Globie cartoonist Daniel Wasserman for his slam of both The Felon and the police association that foolishly hired him as a lobbyist.

The caption: “He’s not a perp, he’s our lobbyist!”

Even Funnier

Take a look at how the Globies framed the Finne-felon issue:

Executives at WRKO-AM are reviewing their options after being blindsided by news yesterday that morning drive-time talk show host Thomas M. Finneran is opening a Beacon Hill lobbying firm, a move that has spurred questions about the former House speaker’s credibility on the airwaves.

Just now there are questions about his credibility? Only in Globie-land.

WRKO’s Phony “Examination Of Issues”

Don’t be fooled by WRKO’s sudden concern for on-air ethics, reputation and integrity. If any of these mattered to Entercom, The Felon never would have been hired in the first place.

It’s simply a way to provide an easy excuse for an exit that was likely already planned.

Here’s Coffee sounding concerned:

WRKO brass are taking a hard look at Tom Finneran’s new lobbying gig and whether it will “negatively” impact his role as the news talk station’s morning-drive host.

“We’re examining all of the issues implicated by Tom’s potential lobbying activities to ensure that his effectiveness as a talk-show host has not been and will not be negatively impacted,” WRKO (680 AM) Program Director Jason Wolfe said in an e-mail last night.

Finneran set up the firm because he knows he’s leaving, not to create any conflict of interest. And even if he did remain on the air, what would be the difference? It was already a Beacon Hill suck-up fest even before the new racket was cooked up.

All of this is about creating a face-saving exit strategy for both Tom Finneran and David Field, the Entercom CEO who forced the corrupt former speaker onto the airwaves.

What A Difference A Paper Makes

A 37-year-old diplomat stationed in Pakistan is shot in the head and we are to believe it was suicide? Something about this doesn’t add up.

As Keith Ryan was raised in Hingham, this story is full of local angles, including the fact that his father is Globie Bob Ryan.

A father of three triplets, it just seems hard to believe this lifelong go-getter would take his own life. He was a political conservative who believed in serving his country and was obviously willing to transfer to unpleasant locales.

Yet the coverage couldn’t be more different: the Globies went straight for the news obit presentation and seem satisfied it was suicide, while it’s straight news at the Herald, with a far more skeptical view.

What the hell is going on here? The major bloggers ought to be all over this.

Either way, his death is a loss for America. I’m sorry I didn’t know him, his life experiences sound fascinating.

UPDATE: Globie coverage of Ryan’s death has done a 180, with the paper now reporting on speculation that he may have been murdered.

Image: AP via Boston Herald

Looking For An Exit?

Is Tom Finneran really interested in creating a massive conflict of interest between his on-air work and a new lobbying racket he’s setting up on Beacon Hill?

Based on the piece in today’s Globe, it sure looks that way:

Finneran, who pleaded guilty last year to a federal obstruction- of- justice charge and has been disbarred, said yesterday that he and his former law partner, James E. Byrne, are hanging out a lobbying shingle and that they have signed up the State Police Association of Massachusetts.

Finneran said he is looking for other clients to represent before his former colleagues at the State House. He said he has no plans to leave WRKO-AM, where he has hosted the prime morning-drive time slot from 6 to 10 a.m. since February.

Rick Brown, the newly installed president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, confirmed the union leadership’s decision to hire Finneran. He said his criminal record has not sparked any negative reaction.

“We are not hiring him to be a trooper; we are hiring him to walk the hallways of the State House,” Brown said. “He is still one of the most respected and powerful people on Beacon Hill.”

It was not clear last night how Finneran intends to remain an effective commentator on state politics and policy while also representing clients before state officials. WRKO programmer Jason Wolfe could not be reached.

“I am at a stage in my life where I would like to do a good number of things,” Finneran said. “I don’t want to be narrow in the way I approach life.”

His program, “Finneran’s Forum,” slipped from seventh last summer to eighth this fall in the Arbitron ratings of Boston radio programs during that time slot. It draws an average of 161,000 weekly listeners.

“I have a multiyear contract that runs a few more years,” said Finneran. “They have made a substantial investment in me.”

Only in Massachusetts would a police association hire a convicted felon to lobby on their behalf! How truly comical.

As for Finneran’s career, I don’t believe he’s doing this to create a gigantic conflict of interest. Instead, it’s an escape route, created to make up for the disbarment. With the radio show clearly not working out, he’s been in desperate need of an out.

Note how WRKO management wasn’t available to comment: instead of defending him, they are now silent.

And as corporate owners always include loopholes, radio contracts are rarely worth the paper on which they’re printed. With his legal background, Finneran must realize that.

It’s virtually impossible to to host both a four-hour morning drive radio program and work as a lobbyist, unless The Felon plans on merely showing up each day without doing the slightest bit of prep work.

But I think the “narrow” comment is his way of telegraphing an early end to his miserable radio program.

UPDATE: Dan Kennedy has a dead-on post about the ethical considerations behind this dubious move. Kennedy believes Finneran has “jumped the shark”.

UPDATE: there are major rumblings locally that Finneran will depart WRKO before 12 February, his first anniversary with the station.