The Dorchester Reporter Includes 44-Page Insert Dedicated To Marty Walsh Praise

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2021/03/24/the-dorchester-reporter-includes-44-page-insert-dedicated-to-marty-walsh-praise/

Did you hear that Marty Walsh is no longer the mayor of Boston?

If not, The Dorchester Reporter will let you know. This week’s edition of the newspaper comes with a 44-page insert largely praising Walsh. This comes as the U.S. Senate confirmed the Savin Hill native to serve as the Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden.

The issue of the paper is dated Tuesday, March 23. The insert features articles that are positive about Walsh, from a variety of authors with Dorchester connections.

The first article in the issue is by editor Bill Forry, headlined “The Man and the Politician We Know.” In it, Forry reveals that he liked Walsh as a mayor — and dislikes former President Donald Trump.

“Walsh’s mayoral record is imperfect and incomplete — and one that will be more fully plumbed in the coming weeks in our pages — but as he lets loose his grip on City Hall, Marty leaves behind a weary Boston that has been battered by pandemic and bruised by the related economic fallout,” Forry wrote. “And yet, his has been a sure and steady hand during a time of unprecedented crisis. And until Covid hit, his seven years in office were marked by remarkable growth and relative peace and prosperity. In an era marred by the most depraved and degrading presidency in U.S. history, he has led this city with compassion, empathy, and the good nature that made him a compelling candidate in the first place.”

The second article in the insert follows the same pattern:  pro-Walsh and anti-Trump. It came from Chris Lovett, a longtime contributor to the paper.

The article, headlined “Marty Walsh the Mayor: A Change Agent, But Not By Himself,” says that the former mayor worked well with others, something Lovett feels Trump never did.

“As he was looking to another election year in 2021, Walsh could have followed the playbook of Donald Trump:  boasting of the economic growth before a pandemic inflicted from outside, or even reinforcing a division between the champions of reopening and proponents of caution,” Lovett wrote. “Instead, the mayor cast himself as the anti-Trump, as he had geared up his re-election campaign four years earlier, in 2017.

“If Trump claimed to be the one and only person who could restore greatness on a national scale, Walsh cast himself as the city’s listener, learner, and problem solver,” he continued. “By approving reforms in police accountability — advanced by his own task force in 2020, but following a push by many other elected officials from Boston — Walsh did invite the question of what might have been accomplished sooner had he been more assertive. Even if his tenure provided less continuity than expected, he was still Trump’s opposite:  an agent of change after all, but not on his own.”

Fellow Democrat Frank Baker, a Boston City councilor who attended the now-defunct St. Margaret’s Grammar School with Walsh, wrote the third article. The headline is “It’s Farewell, Not Goodbye.”

Baker praised Walsh for the job he did as mayor but also said he is happy that Walsh will serve the entire country now.

“He will be remembered as a mayor who effectively led with a strong constitution to do right by this city and its people,” Baker wrote of Walsh. “He will leave Boston as one of its most popular mayors, with a 69 percent favorability rating. Good luck in Washington, Marty. Boston’s loss is the country’s gain.”

Another politician who wrote a puff piece on Walsh for the issue is former Dorchester state representative James Brett, a Democrat, who is now president and chief executive officer of The New England Council, which lobbies on behalf of the businesses that belong to it. The article’s headline is “Jim Brett on Marty Walsh:  A Leader From A Young Age.”

Brett reflects on knowing Walsh and his family for years and calls Walsh “a caring, good person.” He also thinks Walsh is a good pick to be Secretary of Labor.

“The Secretary of Labor position is the perfect job for him,” Brett wrote. “He will be an advocate for all workers. He will also be in a position to help people with disabilities as the community continues to work on issues like equal pay and access to the workforce. He will have a lot on his plate, but I believe Marty is up for the challenge. He will do a great job. Of all of the Secretaries of Labor in our history, the one people will remember will be Marty Walsh.”

Walsh is the 29th federal Secretary of Labor.

The insert also includes an article Forry wrote for the Boston Irish Reporter in October 2014 headlined “Walsh Returned ‘Home To A Hero’s Welcome in Connemara,” an area in the west of of County Galway in Ireland.

The focus of the article is how proud people in Ireland were of him for being mayor of Boston.

“Martin J. Walsh may not be a household name throughout Ireland, at least not yet. But here in the west of Ireland, and especially in the southern parts of Connemara where John Walsh and Mary O’Malley were born and raised, he is a celebrity of historic importance, a modern-day chieftain with a deeply personal connection to thousands of people, most of whom still speak Irish as their primary language,” Forry wrote. “The Gaeltacht, as that Irish-speaking region is called here, is most certainly Marty Walsh country.”

Additionally, the issue contains stories such as

 

—  an article on Walsh’s initial run for state representative in the 13th Suffolk District headlined “How It Started:  Marty Walsh’s First Campaign”

— a State House News Service article headlined “Massachusetts House Members Who Served in a President’s Cabinet”

—  an excerpt of a “campaign trail ebook” on the 2013 Boston mayoral race called “This Way to City Hall” written by former Dorchester Reporter news editor Gintautas Dumcius

— an article written by the paper’s former editor Jim O’Sullivan in 2004 headlined “THE MARTY PARTY:  How Walsh’s ‘Pragmatic Progressivism’ Evolved As State Rep”

— an article headlined “Covering Marty Walsh for the Boston Herald” from former Boston Herald State House reporter Dave Wedge, who covered Walsh for the paper and later became neighbors and friends with him.

The insert contains congratulations ads to Walsh from the following organizations:

  • Boston Red Sox
  • Irish Social Club of Boston
  • Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester
  • IBEW Local 103 and NECA Greater Boston
  • North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters
  • International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union 25
  • International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union 25
  • Codman Health Center
  • Sullivan & McLaughlin Companies
  • City of Boston Credit Union
  • Suffolk Construction
  • Eastern Bank
  • RODE Architects
  • B.C. High
  • Project D.E.E.P. (The Dorchester Educational Enrichment Program)
  • Boston Firefighters Local 718 president John Soares
  • Massachusetts & Northern New England Laborers’ District Council
  • Heat & Frost Insulators Local 6
  • Bunker Hill Community College
  • Action for Boston Community Development
  • Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589
  • Teamsters Joint Council 10 New England
  • WORK Inc.
  • The Boston Foundation
  • The Committee to Elect Ayanna Pressley
  • 617 Media Group
  • Trinity Development & Management
  • Central Boston Elder Services
  • Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
  • Rodman for Kids
  • Operating Engineers Local 4
  • Feeney Brothers Utility Services
  • Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35
  • Pipefitters Local 537
  • Greater Boston Labor Council
  • Massachusetts AFL-CIO
  • Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
  • Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan
  • VietAID
  • Building Pathways
  • Cedar Grove Gardens
  • Cristo Rey High School
  • state Senator Nick Collins (D-South Boston)
  • The Essaibi George Committee (Boston city councilor Annissa Essaibi George)
  • Corcoran Jennison Companies
  • The Phillips Group
  • College Bound Dorchester

A spokesman for The Dorchester Reporter could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.