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Boston Herald blood-transfusion scare-mongering

Monday, November 7th, 2011

To the editor:

To run an article which aggressively calls into question the safety of blood transfusions [2] [3] [4], without so much as a single word countering the scare-mongering, goes well beyond bad reporting and crosses the line to irresponsible, dangerous journalism.

Certainly, there are risks to blood transfusions. But there are risks to pretty much every medical procedure, and to print such a one-sided article is outrageous.

What’s next? Are you going to run a fawning article about how great Jenny McCarthy’s anti-vaccine campaign is?

If your unbalanced article causes someone to refuse a blood transfusion in an emergency and they die as a result, their death is on your hands.

Shame on you.

Jonathan Kamens

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Posted in Boston, Journalism | 1 Comment »

Peter Gelzinis and Casey Anthony

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Mr. Gelzinis, 

“Jury nullification” doesn’t mean what you seem to think it does. Please look it up before you make a fool of yourself again misusing the term in another column.

I wonder if you were present for Casey Anthony’s entire trial, or watched the whole thing on video, or read the transcript. If not, I’m not sure why you think you are in a position to second-guess the decision of the jury.

Your claim that the jury’s verdict is a lie and makes no sense is bunk and is incredibly disrespectful to the jurors who did their civil duty, put their lives on hold, experienced the trauma of sitting on this jury through this trial, and did their best to render a just verdict.

I often agree with your columns and usually find them to be leaps and bounds better than those of some of your clearly mentally disadvantaged colleagues, but I despise when pundits and talking heads use sensationalistic, inflammatory language to question the verdict of a properly empaneled jury based only on a tiny, biased subset of the trial testimony, i.e., the skewed mishmash reported in the media.

Please stick to the well-reasoned, well-supported, well-articulated columns you are so good at, and leave the lurid, yellow journalism to your colleagues who can’t write anything else.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

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Posted in Boston, Journalism | 1 Comment »

Daughter’s unintentional trip to Newark still occasionally in the news

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

See When kids are all alone at 10,000m, published May 1 by The New Zealand Herald.

The author of the article, Danielle Murray, did a remarkably good job of getting her facts right about what happened to me daughter, with the exception of saying that it happened “in June last year,” when in fact it was the year before.

 

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Posted in Consumer activism, Journalism | 1 Comment »

Many sidewalks in Allston-Brighton still buried in snow – Allston-Brighton, MA – Allston/Brighton TAB

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

I play a prominent role in this article:

Many sidewalks in Allston-Brighton still buried in snow – Allston-Brighton, MA – Allston/Brighton TAB

Good for the TAB for doing some real, honest-to-goodness journalism! In recognition, I’ve just subscribed to the TAB.

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Posted in Boston, Government activism, Journalism | 2 Comments »

Letter in today’s Herald: backyard pools are a safety hazard

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

In a recent tragedy, twin toddlers drowned in their family’s backyard in-ground pool.

Two articles in a row in the Boston Herald mentioned that the authorities were investigating how the twins drowned despite the fact that the pool had a cover.

There seems to be a widespread misconception, which the Herald articles exacerbate, that pool covers are a safety device. In my letter in today’s Herald, I tried to set the record straight:

Safety hazard

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A pool cover is not a safety device; it is intended to keep the pool clean, not prevent drownings. In fact, pool covers make pools less safe for children (“Police to study security tape in tots’ drowning,” July 19).

My heart goes out to the parents, but it disturbs me to see officials claiming they did everything right. If that had been the case, then it would have been impossible for the children to access the pool unsupervised. There is a reason why many insurance companies refuse to issue policies to homes with pools.

- Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

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Posted in Boston, Journalism | 3 Comments »

Boston Herald as cog in the vast right-wing anti-global-warming conspiracy

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

In a February 10 column printed in the Boston Herald, Jonah Goldberg repeats the anti-global-warming canard that severe snowstorms are evidence against global warming.  In response, I sent the following letter to the editor:

To the editor:

Jonah Goldberg’s recent suggestion that severe winter weather disproves global warning shows an alarming ignorance of basic science. In particular:

  • When the air is warmer, more water evaporates into it.
  • When there is more water in the air, it snows more.
  • Once you get below freezing, colder temperatures actually decrease snowfall.

In short, the simple truth is that global warming causes more snow, not less.

Of course, ideologues like Goldberg rarely let something as inconvenient as the truth stand in the way of their agenda.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens
Brighton

Not only did the Herald not print my letter or any other letter or opinion piece making a similar point, they have run at least two idiotic editorial cartoons mocking the idea that more snow supports global warming theories.  (more…)

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Posted in Boston, Journalism, Politics | 11 Comments »

Boston Herald’s Joe Fitzgerald aspires to be the next George Orwell

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

To: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

To the editor:

I enjoyed Joe Fitzgerald’s recent satire of the pro-life movement. I laughed so hard coffee came out my nose when I read that “the only choice [the pro-choice movement] will tolerate is its own.” It was obvious that he was joking, since it’s so patently absurd to suggest that people protecting a woman’s right to choose are trying to deny her a choice.

Wait, what’s that? He was serious? Are you sure? Oh, in that case, never mind.

Fitzgerald is right that pro-choice extremists sometimes say stupid things, but I’ll take them over the extremists on the other side who think it’s God’s work to assassinate doctors performing legal medical procedures.

Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

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Posted in Boston, Journalism, Politics | 1 Comment »

Family “Letters to the Editor” Score: +1

Monday, January 11th, 2010

In today’s Boston Herald:

Learn from Israel

Monday, January 11, 2010

The Israelis do not use racial profiling for airport security (“European response mixed to new U.S. security demands,” Jan. 4). They use profiling, which includes patterns of behavior, coordination of intelligence and sophisticated modeling of which country of origin as but one factor. Interviews at the airport are by trained army personnel and they are watching and listening to everyone, even Florida snowbirds. They are just doing it right.

Of course the U.S. should be profiling instead of harassing passengers and crippling the industry, but our technique of rounding up suspicious black men won’t catch Nigerian bombers, and it certainly won’t catch British ones.

- A… Kamens, Brighton

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Posted in Boston, Israel, Journalism, Politics | No Comments »

Joe Fitzgerald’s token Christmas-loving Jew

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

To: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

To the editor:

On Dec. 10, Joe Fitzgerald wrote about Irina Koltoniuc, his favorite Christmas-loving Jew, for the sixth time (“Jewish immigrant champions Christmas”).  Does he keep writing about the same woman because he’s too lazy to find someone else, or because he can’t find any other Jews willing to talk about how nice it is to have a religion they do not believe in shoved down their throats?

We can talk about the “conspiracy against Christianity” when Fitzgerald can write about a public school system which marks Christian kids with unexcused absences for observing their holidays, which is what the Boston Public Schools did to to a student recently for the Jewish holidays, or a city soccer league which prevents Christian kids from playing by scheduling all of its games on Sunday morning, as opposed to the all-Saturday-morning schedule which kept me out of the league.  And when was the last time Fitzgerald was unable to attend the Herald’s holiday party because he had to go to Mass?  To the detriment of my career, I will (once again) this year be missing my employer’s Friday-night party.

There is no “conspiracy against Christianity” in this country. There is, rather, a long overdue recognition that it’s not nice for the majority religion in this country to impose itself on everyone else.  Unfortunately, there’s a long way to go before non-Christians will truly be treated equally in the public sphere.  Maybe Fitzgerald should write about that.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

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Posted in Boston, Journalism, Judaism, Religion | 3 Comments »

Better handcuff those weapons so they can’t get away!

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

From today’s Herald:

“Comeaux, 49, took the officers’ weapons and handcuffed them together in the back of the vehicle…”

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