Is the Wu administration squeezing millions from half-empty office towers with jacked-up tax assessments? | Emily Rooney teams up with Contrarian Boston to revive "Beat the Press" |
News tips? Story ideas? Email us at sbvanvoorhis@contrarianboston.com
The return of an award-winning and sorely missed media critic: Emily Rooney joins up with Contrarian Boston to revive “Beat the Press”
The press is more of a lapdog than a watchdog now, whether it’s covering City Hall or Washington.
And don’t get us started on the groupthink and hypocrisy that permeates the mainstream media, left and right.
With the relaunch of “Beat the Press with Emily Rooney,” Contrarian Boston hopes to fill a need for real media criticism that calls out what needs to be called out and eschews happy talk.
Rooney will lead short, freewheeling discussions with Contrarian Boston and various guests on the latest media stories, scandals, controversies, and challenges.
Each under-ten-minute video will focus on one specific topic. Contrarian Boston will post the segment on our site and send it out to our 15,000-plus subscribers.
We’ll be sending out our first episode on Thursday evening, so check your inbox. Media Nation’s Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern, joined Rooney and Contrarian Boston to discuss the Olivia Nuzzi scandal.
Nuzzi, a prominent Washington political reporter, carried on a secret affair with RFK Jr. amid the heated 2024 political campaign.
A veteran of broadcast journalism, Rooney hosted “Beat the Press” on WGBH-TV for 22 years.
Rooney and her show won the National Press Club’s Arthur E. Rowse Award for Press Criticism in 2001, 2004, 2005, and received an honorable mention in 2006.
Rooney was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2009.
Education in crisis: Join Contrarian Boston and a panel of experts at noon on Jan. 15 as we discuss the challenges facing Bay State schools
Massachusetts schools are at a perilous crossroads.
Student test scores have declined, third graders can’t read, statewide graduation requirements have been gutted, and teachers are lobbying for the right to strike.
Meanwhile, public school enrollment is falling while state and local governments face serious budget and financial challenges.
Thirty years ago, business and education leaders collaborated to pass sweeping reforms that made Massachusetts schools the best in the country.
Is it time for a reboot?
Join Contrarian Boston and a panel of experts on Jan. 15 at noon as we delve into the top education issues facing the state.
The games Boston mayors play: Dozens of downtown office buildings sold for rock-bottom prices over the past two years, but city tax officials assessed them all at higher - and in most cases much higher - values
Something miraculous is happening in downtown Boston.
Like other cities across the country, the office market in Boston has tanked as remote work empties older buildings and newer towers alike.
However, city officials in Washington, D.C., and New York, faced with the same set of conditions, have lowered the assessed/taxable value of their office towers by double digits, with D.C. knocking 10 percent off in 2025 alone.
But not Boston. The city’s assessing department looked at more than two dozen official buildings and towers sold over the past two years and came to an astounding conclusion.
In every single case, city officials decided the office properties in question were worth more, in their view, than what investors and buyers had recently agreed to pay for them.
That is what a spreadsheet shared with Contrarian Boston shows.
