John TomaseNo really, he was scheduled today in the approval ratings prior to the Matt Walsh statement from last night…

Tomase is the beat reporter covering the New England Patriots for the Boston Herald. He is a Tufts grad, and joined the Herald in 2005 after covering the Red Sox for the Lawrence Eagle Tribunefor a number of years. He is the main blogger for the Herald’s Point After Patriots blog, and makes appearances on Comcast SportsNet from time to time.

He is in the spotlight now, of course, for the article he wrote the day before this year’s Super Bowl, where a source in his article claimed that the Patriots had filmed the Rams walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. The article brought Tomase national attention…whether that was his aim or not…and with yesterday’s revelation that Walsh has no such tape of the walkthrough and was not the source of Tomase’s article, speculation will likely renew as to who was that source.

Tomase is no stranger to controversy, having written a scathing piece in June 2005 on Manny Ramirez while working for the Eagle-Tribune. The piece claimed the the Red Sox themselves were sick of the slugger and that Ramirez was “robbing the Red Sox and more than indirectly contributing to the cost of baseball’s highest tickets.” He made the rounds of the radio stations after that article, getting his name out there, and possibly leading to his promotion to the Herald.

—————-

{democracy:38}

A warning shot – take it easy in the comments, folks. Anything deemed inappropriate, offensive or overly personal is subject to removal.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

85 thoughts on “Approval Ratings – John Tomase”

  1. My biggest fear is that because he’s not welcome in Foxboro and probably won’t bring much to the Herald’s coverage of football, they’ll have to put him on the Bruins beat.

    Draft DelZotto!

    “Disapprove!”

    Like

    1. The Bruins beat? He would be better off joining the gals who write the gossip columns, but he’s too ugly to go to all the high society events.

      Like

  3. Ya know, there’s a large part of his work that isn’t all that bad. But that part isn’t large enough. Dis.

    Like

  4. Has morphed from a decent young writer into a practitioner of the worst kind of yellow journalism.

    Running a false story about the SB walkthrough based on a single unnamed source? Check.

    Calling Manny Ramirez gutless for taking a game off the day after being hit in the helmet with a pitch? Check.

    In a way, it’s a shame. Tomase was doing diligent work on the Pats beat this year and I thought his work had improved. But his latest actions have revealed him to be the bottom-feeding muckracker he truly wants to be. Congrats, I guess.

    Disapprove. Most strenuously disapprove!

    Like

  5. victim of circumstance. tried to play the game the big boys play but failed to realize the big boys were a pack of miscreants.

    Like

  7. Even forgetting the spygate thing- the Manny article was ridiculous- a blatant attempt to make a name for himself. He relies too much on questionable sources. Disapprove!

    Like

  9. Should have gotten a second source for the story. The Patriots will be forever scarred by it.

    Like

  10. Timing couldn’t be better. Was fine when he kept a lower profile, but soon settled into the fat and lazy mode and went for sensationalism, the easier, quicker way to get multiple gigs on Boston Media outlets and become just another in a lengthening line of media whores we have in our fine city.

    The Walsh story should send him to pasture, but it won’t as so many of his comrades love to hang on to the slightest glimmer of hope that the “walkthrough” tape exists. I find more credibility in the famous “Sasquatch” tape.

    My brother in-law went to high school with him and said he was a fat dumpy kid that never played a sport in his life. He was stunned the first time he saw his name in print, and later, his doughy, John Popper-esque, kisser on TV.

    Often looks like he smelled bad cheese or curdled milk, and appears to have the personal hygiene traits of a spotted hog (or Pete Sheppard…take your pick.)

    This guy is a real stinker.

    DISSAPROVE 100%

    Like

  11. When you try to be the story rather than report the story you actually invite the abuse you get.

    How in the world the St Louis spygate lie would be your choice as the story to run with the day before the most historic Super Bowl game your readership will ever see is so amazingly self-absorbed, so remarkably incompetent and so glaringly petty that it begs the need to question the motives and qualifications of the writer.

    Like

  12. Can blame a reporter for trying to get the story, on the whole think he does a good job with the Pats, I approve!

    Like

  13. Why all the yellow seats,Dale…I mean, Where are the tapes, Tom?

    Too bad, he’s not a bad writer.

    Like

  14. The kid has talent.

    Sure, plenty of these young reporters know how to throw together an angry screed and grab the attention of the local talk show hosts. But very few have the ability to write a poorly-sourced hit piece rife with inaccuracies and conflicts-of-interes, much less have the impeccable timing to run it on the eve of a Patriots Super Bowl.

    You made me proud, kid. APPROVE!

    Like

  16. Tomase is figuring out what happens when you take you cues trying to be “objective” from the likes of Felger and Borges. Objective suddenly becomes delusional.

    Disapprove

    Like

  17. Keeps the paper moving along…. NOT

    DISAPPROVE!

    As Steve said above – Started out as a decent young writer, then tried to make a name for himself.

    What’s That?…..It’s PAT!

    Like

  18. John Tomase is in Jason Blair/Mike Barnicle territory and really ought to walk the last few inches of the gangplank. Not only has Tomase alienated his readers (he allows no comments to his columns), but he has likely alienated the Patriots as well. What’s left over after two gutter balls like that? The world of sports journalism in Boston comprises every sort of bad human characteristic you can name. Indeed, the whole sports media cabal here has become a caricature. And being the worst of that sorry lot—as Tomase clearly is—certainly isn’t a badge of honor. I figure the next step for Tomase is loading bags onto Southwest Airlines jets down in PVD, or being a Wal-Mart door greeter.

    Like

  19. He has chosen the career path of throwing unsubstantiated controversial crap out there just to make a name for himself. It’s worked so far, unfortunately, as people know who he is today when they would not have known him in the recent past.

    In keeping with that goal, he’ll be THRILLED to see his undboubtedly heavy negative rating today. In his mind, it will make him “edgier” and more “controversial.”

    Step away from the dark side, Jabba.

    Disapprove.

    Like

  20. I hope it’s true that Kraft has ordered NO ONE to cooperate with Tomase now and in the future. I seem to recall that Tomase was warring with Belichick all season, and he may have seen his 2/2 story as a way to “get even.” Just a disgrace.

    Like

  21. Disapprove! Tomase started off nicely at the Eagle-Tribune but then he had dreams of making a name for himself and unfortunately flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami.

    Let this be a lesson to Hector, don’t venture out beyond the cozy confines of Bill Burt’s playhouse. People will actual notice how stupid you really are.

    Like

  22. My guess is that he’ll be the Herald’s new boxing writer before the next football season is over.

    The Globe had no choice but to put Borges on the boxing beat, exclusively, for years after he wrote about the Patriots’ drug scandal in the aftermath of Super Bowl XX against the Bears. The Pats pretty much froze him out of the lockerroom after that and the Globe had to reassign him. He only got back onto the Pats’ beat again after Kraft bought the team if I recall correctly.

    So the boxing beat may in fact be Tomase’s future destination.

    The good news for John is that there are tons of excellent and cheap buffets out in Las Vegas, where the majority of big fights (if any such events still exist today) take place.

    DISAPPROVE….get corroboration for that single “unnamed” source next time big fella.

    Like

    1. Yup. And you get free junkets to Vegas paid for by HBO. Free Don King Vellore jumpsuits.

      Like

      1. Agreed.

        That was before Borges turned his personal dislike for Belichick into a Scarlet Letter that would ultimately destroy his journalistic credibility.

        Like

  23. Disapprove based on the Manny hatchet job…. but the bulk of the Ramsgate fiasco fallout should be borne by his editors at the Herald. Preventing insufficiently-sourced news from hitting the printing press IS THEIR ENTIRE JOB DESCRIPTION. Tomase is just doing his job, albeit badly; it was the editorial board of the Herald that appears to have completely shirked their journalistic responsibility/integrity.

    Like

  25. Bruce, what if I have some inappropriate, offensive and overly personal comments but I can back them up with a source??

    I can’t tell you the source, and if you threaten to sue the source he’ll tell you he wasn’t my source.

    Like

  26. Simply the worst. He owes the Patriots an apology for printing his lie-filled story the day before the Super Bowl. If the Herald was a news organization when any sense of ethics, he would have been fired.

    Like

  27. The fact that a moderator had to ask people to take it easy before a single vote was cast speaks volumes about Tomase.

    He is soon to be irrelevant in this town. He has forever lost the trust of his readership. Borges was an unapologetic asshole and eminently dislikable, but even he never reached the level of professional disrespect from his audience that Tomase now faces. Not to mention the fact that if he were drowning, the team he covers would probably throw him a cinder block.

    He’s done as a legitimate sports journalist in Boston but he’s still young, so maybe he can move on and salvage his career in another town. Too bad for him, he really screwed up a good gig.

    Like

  28. Tomase will find employment at the New York Times. He was used by the Times and its Boston rag, the Globe, to spread a lie. His Judas-like devotion to the Times and the Globe will result in the death of the Herald. But Tomase will be paid his pieces of silver by the Times/Globe where all good Socialists go to write. Tomase who is the source? Who paid for Walsh’s lawyer? How many teams taped opponents coaches? Are you going to work for the Times/Globe or ESPN? Did you enjoy feel the emptiness that all of Boston felt on Super Bowl Sunday? Your pain cannot be enough for me.

    Like

  31. I like him, but he certainly has some explaining to do. The question is why do so many of you people take this thing so personally? The Pats, and Belichick specifically, cheated (and I love the Pats). That’s where this whole thing started. He did not make this thing up out of whole cloth. He has a source. The source got it wrong. He deserves the hit he taking. Every other reporter in this town gets it wrong occasionally if they have the guts to break stories that the hometown fans might not find appealing. His job is not to route-route-route for the home team. Too many of you people don’t seem to understand that.

    Like

    1. Any journalist with half a brain and even a smidgen of ethical sense does not use ONE ANONYMOUS SOURCE as the basis for a story of this magnitude. If Thomase had used multiple sources, or at the very least two who agreed to go on the record, not even the most ardent Pats fan could have a problem with it.

      One source who refuses to go on the record is not a source at all. Even if Thomase didn’t have the sense to do so, his editor should have spiked the story instantly.

      Like

    2. It doesn’t mean you’re breaking a story if you write it up when your grandma tells you she saw Elvis down at the Shop & Save. That’s essentially what JT did with this Rams tape bullsh.

      Like

    3. Char, exactly correct. All I have ever heard about journalists and their stories is that you have to verify your sources. I’m sure that more intelligent and respcted journalists have gotten “scoops”, but when they tried to receive some sort of confirmation somewhere else, it couldn’t be found, and thus the story never went to print. It’s like during a trial; if you only have one witness saying, “X,” and the defendent saying, “X is incorrect,” it’s called hearsay. Tomase just wanted to make a name for himself. He wanted to be the next Borges/Felger. Look where it got them – Borges is gone, and Felger writes once every 2 months for the Herald, and he’s on a radio station that can’t be heard more than 5 miles from Charlestown.

      Like

  32. I’ll take your word that you had this planned, but this seems a little bush league. It’s not like his approval ratings would have been any different if you did it last week or a month from now, but to do it today seems a little too perfect. You’ve been going with people who are “in season” so I’m wondering why Tomase was up today? I won’t judge it though because Guregian, Felger, Reiss, Gasper et. al. surely will be up in the next few weeks.

    Like

      2. Because it’s today, the day this story hit the fan? Like I said, seemed a little too perfect. I already accounted for the fact that ratings wouldn’t have been different, but it’s just funny that earlier today I thought to myself wouldn’t it be wild if Tomase was the name today. And then, what do you know?

        Like

  34. Surprised anyone would call his body of work anything other than poor. Is the writing in this area that bad? Regardless of his Feb 2 article, he’s shown through his other work to be lazy, sensationalist and more “stir the pot” than contribute to Patriots coverage. His prose is inner city high school – at best.

    Every year before and during training camp he would pop up some awful controversy. Troy Brown, Bruschi anyone? Not sure how much blame his editors get for calling for those type stories but he’s a major willing participant.

    Out-worked, out-written and out-analyzed in every way by Mike Reiss, Gasper and Karen G. I suspect he’s hit his peak professionally and will disappear into the cesspool of oblivion soon – where he belongs. The quicker this talentless bottom feeder disappears the higher the level of Patriots coverage will be recognized and not just because of Reiss. I’m sure Reiss thanks his lucky stars every day this hack is his competition.

    Should be writing obituaries – beginning with his own.

    Like

  35. What kind of rodeo clown has a BLOG and then turns the comments OFF? That’s like starting your grill and then not having any steak or burgers.

    Like

  36. Tomase can’t carry Albert Breer’s jock and his blog proves it. It really suffered after Breer got a gig in Dallas. Gets WAY too excited interviewing players about their favorite video games…especially if the topic turns to Tecmo Bowl. Was a dink the one time I met him. I’m glad he’s off the Red Sox beat…shorter season and I can just ignore him and read Mike Reiss instead. Disapprove

    Like

  37. prob of the ugliest ppl ive ever seen, he is a terrible writer and he did get promoted for his ramirez piece to the herald…

    i cant believe he would come out with that article day before superbowl, talk about an ass

    as much as i hate him, where is meter approval ratings, bruce??

    i cant wait for meter!

    Like

  38. Who keeps approving of this clown? At this rate he won’t pass Butch Sterns as the least liked Boston media personality.

    Like

  39. Just remember, Tomase is not unique in journalism. All too often, journalists give a free pass to people whom they like and lash out at people whom they don’t like. All too many journalists nowadays seem to believe that corroboration doesn’t mean a second source, it means hearing a story that fits into your preconceived notions and prejudices.

    Like

  40. A drive by journalist. This tactic got him the Herald job. He obviously thought this was the way to bigger and better things. Knowledge of the walk through tape story’s existence predated knowledge of the signal taping. Felger has stated that employees of both the Herald and Globe had been in contact with Walsh over a couple of years – contact Walsh initiated sometime after he was fired. Tomasse wrote up the rumor when no other media outlet would touch it. He evidently never considered telling his editor’s that it was unethical to go with the story. In an effort to sell papers that the Herald can no longer give away to commuters (and the added bonus of sticking it to the the Patriots organization ) the decision was made.

    He wanted the notoriety. Now he has it. Enjoy Big Guy!

    Like

  41. Look kid, you got Moxie, but knives in the back on the eve of a playoff game are my gig see?

    Like

  42. Really solid reporter and creative writer. If there is fault on the Walsh story, I think it’s the fault of the newspaper for running it with only one source. They should have told Tomase the story wasn’t strong enough to go with. Other than that, I don’t think he did anything wrong.

    Like

  43. RAMONE!!!!!!!!!!! THIS GUY IS THE NEW RON BORGES!!!!!

    Horrible, horrible individual for trying to destroy the Patriots the day before the Super Bowl. If you hate the team so much, get the hell out of Boston. 😛

    Like

  45. I’d just as soon not see the terms “homicidal lunatic” and “loyal Pats fan” switched out so causally.

    Like

  46. DISAPPROVE…When he first started out at the Herald he was pretty good, pretty objective, but I guess he wasn’t getting enough TELEVISION and RADIO time because all of a sudden he decided to turn into Ron Borges…. I mean, it was so OBVIOUS. His writing started to scream, “LOOK AT ME!…LOOK AT ME!”….well, he bit off more than he can chew (is that possible for him?) this time. His credibility is SHOT. How can anyone believe what he writes now?…. He is now the BIGGEST JOKE in the Boston media, and that’s saying something.

    Like

  47. Complete disapprove. AOB said pretty much my thoughts exactly. Could have had a nice gig covering the top team in the NFL, and rose quickly, like Mike Reiss has. But that wasn’t good enough, good luck John, you’ll need it.

    Like

  48. Tomase tried to make a name for himself by having the “courage” to write the piece the day before the Super Bowl. And it blew up in his face. What’s most pathetic is the Herald not having the balls to keep the “comments” section on afterwards.

    Journalist, my a$$. He’s a sports writer. There’s a huge difference.

    Like

  49. Tomase does a decent job on the Point After blog and game coverage during the season. I haven’t seen the blog much in the offseason. He does a fair job on the Patriots beat. Although the Herald editors share a bigger part of the blame than Tomase for the the Patriots-Walsh story, he always tried to take shots at the teams/people he was covering. Some subtle, some not so subtle. He could have redeemed himself by talking about what has happened over the past couple of days. Even something as sorry as defending his hatchet job would have also been acceptable. The very fact he didn’t do anything speaks volumes about his credibility and also of his editors at Herald. Overall I have to say disapprove. He does have the talent to become a good reporter but too often takes the easy road of writing hatchet jobs.

    Like

  50. DISAPPROVE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE

    He just needs to quit now because the first Patriot to talk to him will most likely be cut by Belichick. Running a story with one unsubstantiated source is muckraking 101. Ironically, the best thing that could happen to him is if the Patriots attempt to sue him.

    Time to pack up, move to North Dakota and cover Slamball.

    Like

Comments are closed.