The eerily familiar tale of Shadrach Minkins and the centuries-old federal threat to our Commonwealth
SOMERVILLE COMMUNITY SUMMIT
Convening a city to improve its news media
F.I.G.H.T. SUBOXONE: HOW DID WE GET HERE?
By 2014, it was a full-court press, with Suboxone lobbyists pushing more than 10 bills on Beacon Hill
PUBLIC BAD. PRIVATE GOOD?
Boston Herald’s attack on MassHousing highlights double standard in American journalism
WHO I WRITE FOR: A MEDITATION
Like pretty much every journalist, I think about who I am writing for* from time to time. Most writers aren’t just sending messages into the ether, after all. Unless they are writing for therapeutic reasons. Or they are diarists. But even diarists are typically writing for some future audience they Continue Reading
BROKEN MEDIA, BROKEN POLITICS
If Mass journalists were doing their jobs, Baker would not be so popular May 1, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS It’s always funny to hear that Charlie Baker is a very popular governor… The most popular governor in the country at the moment, according to polls. Because Continue Reading
RETRO POP: LOOKING BACK ON TWO YEARS OF BINJ POP-UP NEWSROOMS
How our nonprofit newsroom starts its listening by popping up where people live and play When summarizing my first two years of running a nonprofit journalism shop in Boston, I often use the spot-on aphorism that necessity is the mother of invention. That’s the best way to explain how, before Continue Reading
TEMPORARY RADICALS? DISAFFECTED DEMS NEED TO STAY IN THE STREETS AFTER THE GOP MENACE IS BEATEN BACK
November 27, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS There is little agreement on the broad American left. But the ascension of Donald Trump to the top of the political heap caused a virtual panic from the most conservative corporate Democrats to the hardest core anarchists and communists. Which resulted in a Continue Reading
PIN THE SALE ON THE DONKEY
How BINJ kicked off the cold months with a reader engagement carnival Three months ago, the team at the BINJ decided to throw our most ambitious event yet. In the past we’ve had fundraisers at watering holes, hosted community panels on various topics, and set up pop-up newsroomsacross Boston and Cambridge — and for our second Continue Reading
DEMOCRATIZE AMERICA: THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE NATION AND THE PLANET DOESN’T STOP ON ELECTION DAY
November 8, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS This is not a dream. For your whole life, you’ve seen images on screens showing brutal political struggles in faraway places like Ukraine and Yemen. And in the rare moments you’ve paid attention to the suffering you’ve seen, you’ve asked yourself, “How could Continue Reading