Boston Globe News Story: “Would Anyone Have Noticed If Bartender Had Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?”
An apparent news article at Boston.com, the Web site of the Boston Globe, asked Would Anyone Have Noticed If Bartender Had Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?:
The FBI says an Ohio bartender planned to kill House Speaker John Boehner last October by poisoning his drink at a country club. The question is: Would anyone have noticed?
Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years. His drinking inspired a blog called DrunkBoehner, and in 2010 he brought booze back to Washington. Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.
That last line has been removed, and this editorial note included at the end:
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article made an unsubstantiated reference to the health of Speaker Boehner.
The current headline now reads “Bartender’s Threat Against John Boehner Thwarted” instead of “Would Anyone Have Noticed If Bartender Had Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?”
I picked up the original quote from Noah Rothman at Hot Air, which charitably referred to this as an “op-ed” — presumably assuming that nothing so absurd could actually appear as a “news” story. But that assumption appears to be wrong. The story is in the news section of the site. The link begins as follows: “http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2015/01/13/” — note the word “news” as part of the URL. Bolstering this conclusion is this screenshot of the original version of the story, with the crazy headline and reference to Boehner’s pickled liver:
.@BostonDotCom News section asks, "If Someone Poisoned @johnboehner Would Anyone Notice?" @TwitchyTeam @moelane pic.twitter.com/gmMgm9HQAB
— THE Chris Coon (@Coondawg68) January 14, 2015
Note at the top how the word “News” is underlined in red. That’s because the story is in the news section of the Web site.
Maybe they put their opinion stuff in the “news” section? I can’t seem to find a separate opinion section. Either way, the piece is inappropriate . . . and typical.
Another day in Big Media.
i quit drinking more or less cause of booze taxes here in chicago are just flat-out obscene and confiscatory…
it’s like cigarettes in New York City!
but guess what… it’s even worse in Ohio
pikachus were not put on this earthly plane for to tipple tipple tipple and flush money down the toilet of government coffers no they were not
this boehner person, whoever he is, he needs to stop spending his monies so foolishly i think
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:05 amThis is just another example of demonizing one’s opponents.
The only thing that will stop this kind of business if forcing the name of the person out as part of a public apology.
Unlikely.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:06 amSo the author is Victor Paul Alvarez? Wonder about his other “reporting”?
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:07 amAnd he can’t blame the copy/headline editor. It’s in the body of the article.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:11 amI read the story of the arrest. The criminal case against the poor guy is weak (non-existent in my court). There is a pretty strong case for involuntary commitment. Even with the dipwick federal one-man conspiracy theory, thinking about committing a crime and not making an overt act in furtherance is not a conspiracy.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:16 amYeah, you really can’t use the tabs or URL to claim this is not an op-ed (or is a straight-news story), as both are likely related (the URL may put the story under the news tab) and opinion is routinely put under the news section of large-scale media websites.
JWB (c1c08f) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:18 amLike Professor Reynolds puts it: layers and layers of fact checkers.
Of course, they may be needing layers and layers of lawyers.
I mean, with all that Net Neutrality stuff.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:24 amAll the Boehner haters and name callers on this and other right leaning sites only reinforce to people like this Globe reporter that there probably won’t be much push back when he makes these inappropriate comments in a news article about the man third in line to the presidency.
nk- this arrest happened a while ago. Coincidence that it makes the news just now as the 114th congress is seated? I don’t think so.
elissa (757b3f) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:29 amlike one of the commenters says elissa
this is the Boston Globe, which habitually either ignores or apologizes for the oft-drunken (and sometimes-fatal) antics of the trashy trashy Kennedy klan
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:39 amCountry club.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:52 amI bet if someone poisoned Sr. Alvarez everyone would be all Je Suis Victor until they found out it was his mom mishandling the pork product… at which point the uproar goes quietly away.
Those who count attacks on journalists would of course continue to add moms poisoning to pad the tally and promote “awareness”.
steveg (794291) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:53 amImagine if they wrote that headline about Obama.
JD (995bda) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:54 amI know it sounds tired, but name calling creates all this. Heck, I don’t have any answers. I will say that we are individuals, and if we call people silly names or are insulting to public figures, well, we are citizens and should be able to do so.
But “journalists”? That shouldn’t happen.
I do think a “journalist” should have to apologize for that kind of thing. It’s not professional.
On the other hand, maybe the fellow is looking for a job at MSNBC?
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:03 amThe headline may have been changed, but the URL didn’t change. You can often see the original headline in the URL. Because of embedded links, they are rarely changed.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:09 amImagine if they wrote that headline about Obama.
Or, more pointedly, Biden.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:13 amIt’s strange how often these Freudian slips are happening. Do newspapers not have fact- checkers for their online stories, or Is everyone so biased that they don’t notice these “mistakes”?
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:02 amIt’s interesting to look at the comments. The worst of the commenters, with quite a few, doesn’t want anyone to know who he is.
TeaPartyTerroristFaiIAgain’s profile is set to private.
The New Orleans politicians were posting comments online anonymously as well as the renowned Michael Hiltzik with his sock puppets.
I wonder who he is ?
Mike K (90dfdc) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:12 amThe correction is as lame as the original story. If they had any professionalism, they would be embarrassed but they probably think it’s funny.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:17 amI has assumed that the Distinguished Speaker’s rather notable pigmentation came from bad tanning, but perhaps he favors a drink which has damaged his liver and tinted his epidermis; Enquiring minds will want to know. 🙂
Had Mr Boehner been, in some fashion, unable to exercise his duties as Representative from Ohio and as Speaker, someone else would have replaced him.
The snarky Dana (f6a568) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:27 amYour instinct about the URL indicating this was designated as a news article is correct. Here is the main Boston Globe opinion page:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion
And the URL of the first article that appears on it:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/01/13/france-loses-its-jews-france-loses/mr28dJXw347EMLRkHIaiqN/story.html
An opinion article does, in fact, live in a directory labeling it as opinion.
Eliot (fdf2d8) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:35 amI would have thought that the More Mush From The Wimp paper would have higher standards.
Dave (in MA) (037445) — 1/14/2015 @ 10:56 amThe Globe may be at the tip of the iceberg of the next new leftist media meme. Republicans are drinkers!!!! Coincidence?
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Documents-reveal-Ted-Cruz-was-ticketed-with-6014834.php
elissa (757b3f) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:17 amelissa (757b3f) — 1/14/2015 @ 8:29 am
Court files were unsealed on Tuesday.
This is maybe not a coincidence. Maybe they wanted to wait until after the final result of he election was in and the House had picked a Speaker.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:20 amI think the bit about how he could have poisoned the beer if he had wanted to harm the Speaker was a statement Mike the bartender later made in his defense.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:22 amSammy–Focus. The Boston Globe headline said what it originally said no matter what you “think”.
elissa (757b3f) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:25 amyou could almost bet money the DrunkBoehner blog was “inspired” by one of any of several dozen groups funded by the inveterately anti-american anti-semitic anti-capitalist anti-liberty George Soros
it just has that feel
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:34 amWhy is it no one ever shoots up the Boston Globe newsroom? Would anyone notice?
Estragon (ada867) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:43 amI think the Boston Globe writer – and many others maybe – got the whole point of the poisoning beer remark wrong, because the story he relied on, if not read very carefully, was misleading because it didn’t give the context of the poisoning the beer remark. I wasn’t speaking about the Boston Globe writer thought, but about reality.
There’s no way this poisoning the beer remark makes sense except a statement made by the bartender in his defense.
His whole point was that he had NOT poisoned the beer, and that he never had had any attention to, but because he could have, he should not be suspected of wanting to harm him in some other way.
Now that may be specious reasoning, because maybe he wanted to harm the Speaker only after, and because, he got fired.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 11:56 amSammy,
The bartender’s firing may have been a precipitating factor, but it sounds like he also has mental problems. I base that on the allegations that the bartender “… told the officer he was Jesus Christ and he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola.”
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:07 pmFrom the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/01/13
If the prosecutor charged him with planning to poison his drinks, the prosecutor is a fool. The jury should no problem acquitting him, if that’s the basis of this.
This comes from a 911 tape, which could only have been listened to, subject to a warrant, after Hicks had lost his job as a bartender and made a different or very vague, threat.
He was going to kill him with a handgun, he said.
NOT by poisoning his beer.
There’s no two ways about it.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:09 pmDRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:07 pm
He may not have been so crazy.
His statement as to his secret identity may have been made, not because he thought that is who he was, but because he thought he could convince the officer of that. It might have happened if the officer asked him if that was who he was, so he saw an opening. It is also possible the officer misunderstood what he was saying. It is also possible Hoyt did not communicate clearly.
His statement about Boehner being mean to him may be connected to the idea that Boehner was responsible for him getting fired.
His statement that Boehner was responsible for ebola was what some Democrats were saying, and so was grist for his mill.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-latest-pre-midterm-attack-on-the-gop-republicans-are-responsible-for-ebola-deaths/article/2554716
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:20 pmSammy–Focus. This post is about the Boston Globe’s incendiary headline and its deceptive, poorly written article. This post is not about the prosecutor or about a potential jury or about when or why the bartender may have said what to whom. Did you notice a difference in the tone and substance of the NYT article you linked versus the Globe’s? Do you see why people are going after the Globe and not after the NYT over their reportage of the same event?
elissa (757b3f) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:21 pmHow do you explain the part about the bartender saying he is Jesus Christ?
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:23 pmHoyt probably only meant that Boehner was responsible for ebola in the United States , not that he’d created the virus (!!) like the news reports make it sound like he said, us, because supposedly because of Boehner it was not contained in Africa, but he was not very articulate or officer simply didn’t have good listening skills.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:25 pmOk, Sammy, then I guess his history of mental problems doesn’t bother you either.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:45 pmPS — Thinking you are Jesus Christ is a sign of psychosis. It’s a guaranteed way to get a psych evaluation at a mental health facility, if that was his goal. In fact, that’s where he is now.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:47 pmOn a serious note, I’ve represented a person who claimed to be Jesus. He was as normal-appearing as anyone, other than that claim. He thought logically, acted normally, was friendly, engaging and articulate. But he had some delusions (faulty premises, like believing he was Jesus) on which he built logical arguments. Unless you understood his delusions, you might never realize he was mentally unstable. In fact, people didn’t realize it until he started preaching the end of the world and explaining to people why he knew the exact date it would end.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:51 pmGee, I wonder where a guy would get the idea to blame John Boehner for Ebola. He’s gotta be insane, right?
http://youtu.be/c3D0DxjgPB0
L.N. Smithee (b14646) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:58 pmSammah sprints down yet another rabbit hole of his own creation.
Simon – the “journalist” should not apologize. He should be fired. Any apology would be self serving BS.
DRJ – the update/correction glosses right over the more noxious aspects of their news article. I think it actually makes it worse.
JD (86a5eb) — 1/14/2015 @ 1:31 pmUPDATE:
[I am but a guest blogger, so I won’t deign to place an update in the body of our host’s original post.]
Boston.com (which is owned by the Globe but technically operates separately, according to what they want us to believe) has added this introduction to the story:
So they clearly know they have pooped in the bed here and are moving to damage control. It will be interesting to hear if there is any formal disciplinary action for the author, Victor Paul Alvarez, or if they just slap him lightly on the wrist and tell him to watch himself.
Of course the huge irony here is that a region and political ideology that gave us Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill is now really disgusted by heavy drinking among Washington, DC power brokers.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/14/2015 @ 1:50 pmDRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:51 pm
Much the same way Mohammad got started.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/14/2015 @ 1:51 pmJVW – Did they address how their layers and layers of fact checkers missed this? Or how this bile got into a “news” article?
JD (86a5eb) — 1/14/2015 @ 2:15 pmI’m sure they will blame it on “the night shift” or some other nonsense.
And by the way, that picture of Boehner kissing Nancy Pelosi on the cheek is about the most awesome picture I have ever seen captured in the House Chamber (ok, ok, it’s not a competitive category). I think I’ll make that my profile picture on Facebook.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/14/2015 @ 2:23 pmI use my neighbors old boston globes to line my garden before I put seaweed on top. Keeps the weeds down, bugs stay below the paper and the worms love it.
mg (31009b) — 1/14/2015 @ 2:31 pmMuslims and Leftist do crappy stuff all day and no one even notices anymore.
We have come to expect awful behaviour as the norm.
Rodney King's Spirit (69985e) — 1/14/2015 @ 3:29 pmof course, if any conservative news outlet had said this same thing about a democrat we all know what would happen…
of course, this is just incident #2486 since 2008 where one couldve said “what would happen if a republican said it”
democrats are just a caricature of themselves now…theyre useless to themselves and everyone else-a laughingstock among laughingstocks…they should be pitied if they werent so rude, wrong, and just dangerous to our country…EVERYTHING THATS WRONG WITH THE WORLD RIGHT NOW HAS ITS ROOTS IN LEFTISM SO WE CAN REFLEXIVELY DISAGREE WITH ANY DEMOCRAT ON ANY SUBJECT-WE NOW KNOW ALL THEY DO IS LIE AND OBFUSCATE TO COVER WHAT THEY ARE ALL ABOUT-WE NOW KNOW THAT WHATEVER THEY WANT TO DO IS ONLY GOOD FOR THEM AND NOT FOR THE COUNTRY
sound awake (8d8367) — 1/14/2015 @ 3:45 pmThis helps explain it. In his own words. Victor Paul Alvaraez was previously a writer for Yahoo Shopping. Enjoy.
http://www.thomas-pr.com/sensosolutions/sensogloveinyahooshopping.html
elissa (b2e836) — 1/14/2015 @ 3:57 pmThat sounds so gay.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 4:28 pmI am best described as a boy trapped in a grown man’s body. S’funny. Exact opposite thing happened to Harry Reid. Allegedly.
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/14/2015 @ 4:39 pmbetter question: if the Boston Globe went tits up and stopped publishing, would anyone notice, except possibly to cheer?
redc1c4 (4db2c8) — 1/14/2015 @ 4:55 pm36. DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:47 pm
He also said he was hearing voices.
This morning, the New York Times didn’t know for sure where he was. It’s a point of principle with the paper not to guess.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:15 pm33. DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 12:23 pm
Hard to say. This is hearsay and with no context.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:17 pmMaybe you could learn from them.
JD (86a5eb) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:21 pm“It’s a point of principle with the paper not to guess.”
Sammy – I was unaware the NY Times had principles.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:32 pmThey might get it right by accident. It’s safer to make things up.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:35 pmSammy:
New York Times (online, today):
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:42 pmSammy — You trust the New York Times, don’t you?
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:42 pmdaleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:32 pm
They have principles. But some of their thinking is pretty stupid, so stupid that, as George Orwell said, only an intellectual could believe that.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 5:43 pmThere’s a name for countries where the Information Organs are operatives of
the State and disappear any and all unflattering references to those in power.
Whatever that name is. Here we are.
Dude, Where’s My Country?
I just parked a moment ago and when I got back this HORROR was in it’s place.
I don’t recognize it and my ownership document doesn’t have half the rules that
this one does.
I can get put in jail for what?
jakee308 (f0aa61) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:06 pmAs Twain said,
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:08 pm“If you don’t read the paper you are uninformed, if you do you are mis-informed.”
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m with Sammy on this one. Until further notice.
Why is it we can listen to the drivel the press puts out at the behest of government
agencies (police departments, prosecutors offices, mayors office etc)
We recognize the story is full of holes and bad assumptions so we critique it and go
on our way.
But some guy is SAID to say somethings about a public official and it’s felt he needs to
be arrested so they make some charges up to get him in custody and we swallow the whole
line. Why is that? We know the media lies. We know the Government lies. So why do we buy
the whole spiel in this one case?
There’s a name for this syndrome and I always forget what it is.
jakee308 (f0aa61) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:10 pmI think the ink has chemicals that help loosen the fish scales making them easier to scrape.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:11 pmGell-Mann amnesia.
nk (dbc370) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:11 pm@DRJ The New York Times is reporting the complaint. I don’t trust law enforcement to write down correctly what people tell them. And this is not mainly deliberate honesty – it’s writing down key words thinking they will remember what they don’t, but having overconfidence in their memory and not remembering and then attempting to reconstruct it because they don’t want to admit they don’t remember – or have you never filed a police complaint and then seen what they wrote down?
The article you link looks like an updated version of an article that I read in the paper today and has got different things in it. This one is dated 3:29 pm and is from the Associated Press.
“did not have time to put something in John Boehner’s drink,” is new.
The article I saw in the paper said something different:
Further, later on (or earlier) he e-mailed Boehner’s wife and also said he could have, but didn’t, attempt to poison him:
Now maybe he said that when he got fired, he did not get a chance to poison Boehner in retaliation, but I don’t know what to trust.
Maybe studying this could help:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/13/us/politics/boehner-threat-court-documents.html?_r=0
It sounds like Hoyt was all over the place. It’s probably a solid fact that he typed something that printed out as 11 pages that said Boehner was the devil and was responsible for something about ebola and e-mailed it to his father, his ex-girlfriend and his neighbor.
The court papers say “he typed an 11-page blog…HOYT does not remember if he typed the blog on a particular website.”
Can you make sense of that?
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:18 pmThe link works, although it didn’t get closed till far too late.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:20 pmHe may really have made a threat – but the details are all mixed up, and he probably never made a threat about poisoning him, which for some reason, they insist on making the focus of the charges.
At most, he might at one point, have expressed some regret that he didn’t.
But more, he kept on saying, that if that’s what he wanted to do he could have done it a lot of time. Which, as I said, may be specious, because at that time he hadn’t yet been fired, and after he was fired, he was no longer mixing drinks.
He probably never said he was going to shoot him either. Otherwise, they would have made that the focus of the charges. He was trying to scare or force Boehner to help him, though, and he probably crossed the line into extortion. One idea was political libels. Another idea was to claim, or hint at, divinity.
Sammy Finkelman (be6791) — 1/14/2015 @ 6:29 pmPatterico links a post by Noah Rothman at Hot Air. I’ve been noticing his posts for a couple of months. I am not impressed with him or with what Hot Air has become. At least Allahpundit is still there but, other than that, I’m not a fan.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/14/2015 @ 7:43 pm67. You have company.
DNF (846224) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:36 pm“It sounds like Hoyt was all over the place…”
Ya throw a screwgie and ya really never know if will hit teh catchers mitt or the little boy sitting in the bleachers behind the dugout, Sammeh.
Colonel Haiku (b5e7fd) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:49 pmOr a knuckler
Colonel Haiku (b5e7fd) — 1/14/2015 @ 9:50 pmThe most effective decapitation strike against DC would be for FARC to poison the DC cocaine supply.
ErisGuy (76f8a7) — 1/15/2015 @ 3:39 amredc1c4 asked:
Well, the sports section would be missed, so John Henry took care of that!
The Cincinnati Reds, not Boston Red Sox, fan Dana (f6a568) — 1/15/2015 @ 4:34 am71. LOL.
The Effin Princess just released four moat back to failed state Yemen.
Will anyone notice?
DNF (846224) — 1/15/2015 @ 5:07 amMLK being honored today with urban commuter obstruction.
Will anyone take notice?
America’s colon torn, will the bleeding ever be stanched?
DNF (846224) — 1/15/2015 @ 5:19 amDoes Not Function wrote:
If one of the released Guantanamo detainees is caught after having killed an American soldier or citizen, it will be noticed, though the professional media will have nothing but cricket’s chirping until Fox News presses the story. Then it will have two possible responses:
It will not be, it cannot be, the wonderful President Obama’s fault, in any way, like ever!
The prescient Dana (f6a568) — 1/15/2015 @ 7:06 amPeople would have noticed. No more crying, orange man on television having to defend his persecution of members of the House who actually believe in the rule of law and the Constitution.
I have no respect for Johnny Boner. No Spine, no conservative principles, no patriotism. Worthless, as far as I can see. If he were gone, then we might get someone who really cared about America as Speaker. (Not much chance, but still more of a chance than we have with him there.)
I have claimed to be Jesus Christ to a police officer. I was stopped for failure to use a turn signal while changing lanes on a deserted freeway. He has me out of the car and is holding my drivers license with my picture on it. He asked if my name was Jay Curtis. I responded with “No. I am really Jesus Christ but I wanted to go incognito tonight.” That got me handcuffed and put in the back of his car while he stripped everything out of my car to “check for contraband”. Nothing found, two hours of my life gone and I learned that we live in a police state where stupidity is the norm and accepted as a good thing.
Context is important when evaluating people’s statements. Selective statements written down after the fact can and will be misused against you. Never, ever talk to police. It won’t help you and probably will hurt you.
Easy Target (dca0ea) — 1/15/2015 @ 8:45 am