This morning, the jury weighing the case against Aaron Hernandez found the former Patriots tight end guilty of first degree murder. He now faces the a sentence of life in prison without parole, in addition to another double-murder trial in Boston.

Minutes after the verdict the Boston Bruins announced that they had relieved GM Peter Chiarelli of his duties. Nice timing there. Perfect day for the NFL to release the Wells Report.

Sports Hub first, WEEI third in winter Nielsen Audio ratings period – Chad Finn reports on the latest ratings. It was fun hearing Gerry Callahan complain about the signal of WEEI. When they were drubbing the likes of 1510 and 890 in the ratings, they mocked the signal defense.

Looking at the figures Finn provides, WEEI is actually doing decent in the morning and afternoon drive shows, finishing a strong second in each. It’s the midday that is killing them, but as we’ve been told, that slot isn’t very important in terms of advertising dollars.

Speaking of the WEEI morning show. Gary Tanguay? GARY TANGUAY????

A Few Words About Running from the Great Larry Bird – Runners World picks up Bird’s running obsession from Finn’s recent oral history of #33 and gets more for the Celtic legend on the topic.

Q and A with Celtics owners Wyc Grousbeck and Robert Epstein – Adam Himmelsbach talks to the owners about the surprising season.

Celtics face long odds in playoff test with LeBron James & Cavs – The Celtics will officially face LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the first round, and Steve Bulpett looks at their chances of being competitive.

Wizards’ Paul Pierce speaks the truth – You have to love Paul Pierce. The former Celtics captain tells it like it, whether it s about his year in Brooklyn, or his relationship with Ray Allen.

At Fenway Park, no detail too small for Larry Lucchino – Well done by Alex Speier, but this piece reeks of the Red Sox using the Globe for PR.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

30 thoughts on “Aaron Hernandez Guilty, Peter Chiarelli Fired, 98.5 Still On Top”

  1. So tomorrow’s Globe headline…

    “Patriots Star WR Guilty of Murder”
    –News story on the left
    –Column on the right titled: “What did Belichick Know?”

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    1. You forgot to mention the Shaughnessy column, “The ‘Patriot Way’ Is As Dead As Odin Lloyd”.

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  2. MFB needs to go, it’s the black hole for EEI once again. They replaced one weak show with a program thats much worse.

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  5. Bruce…the Alex Speier piece on Lucchino is an informercial not even a human interest story. There is no piece of relevant information in the piece. It is one long tngue bath of Lucchino. I cannot believe Speier, who used to pride himself as a serious baseball scribe woke up one morning, walked into his editors office and said ” Chief, I am moved today to do an informative piece on Larry Lucchino’s attention to detail that includes his picking up trash in the concourse prior to the stadium opening.”

    It is crap like this that the Sox PR staff puts out through the Globe that turnns fans like me off of the team. There is no reason for it.

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    1. Speier, who used to pride himself as a serious baseball scribe woke up one morning

      Hate to say it but he must have known this would happen when he joined that paper.

      Alas, identical thoughts. The Globe stopped being a ‘news source’ long before the Henry buyout but stuff like that just accelerates their continued irrelevance.

      Still sucks but you have to think he’s waiting his time out until MLB or ESPN call.

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  8. As I was telling my friend earlier today, I like to picture Cam and Chiarelli sitting in the Bruins offices watching the Hernandez trial.

    Jury: “We find the defendant guilty.”
    Cam: “Wow, that’s an interesting result. Good on the prosecution for building a conviction out of mainly circumstantial evidence. Oh, by the way, you’re fired, Pete.”

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  9. Am I the only one who finds Mark Bertrand’s and to a lesser extent Scott Zolak’s indignation that the jurors laughed at the post trial press conference condescending, wrongheaded and the type of arrogance that already makes me dislike Tim Benz, made me hate Mike Salk and has me coming to the conclusion that Betrand is a complete load? Memo to Beatle and Zo: the jurors who have spent the last 7 days deliberately meditating on the freedom or lack there of of one Aaron Hernandez gave them unique experiences. You do not know why that was funny to not one of them, but more than half. Perhaps it was an inside joke. Perhaps after filtering through the lies that Hernandez told and that his lawyers tried to perpetuate on them, to try and make them look foolish by convincing them there was reasonable doubt, that they knew which piece of evidence was reasonable and damning which was irrelevant. So when the reporter asked the question they chuckled because they thought it was funny.

    To call them unprofessional points out how f*&^%ing stupid Bertrand is and why he should not be allowed to comment on current events going forward. They handled the case with great care and dignity. They laughed after because of an ironic question. They were not making light of the crime…they had just agreed to convict Hernandez of all charges brought against him, murder and weapons. Instead they were relieved the whole ordeal was over and they were laughing at some inside things that occurred while they were deliberating. How hard is that to comprehend?

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      1. Not surprising. just disappointing. Dave, now that it is over what did you think of the trial, specifically the defense?

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        1. They could have done better, but I don’t think they were as bad as some people are saying. Admitting he was there was their main tactical error, I think. Even though the cell phone evidence pretty thoroughly placed him at the scene, they still should have at least given the jury the room to question the testimony of the phone company experts.

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          1. So a friend of mine has a theory that I am beginning to accept. I think the defense lawyers knew Hernandez was guilty. They also knew he was out of money. There wanted out of trial but were not allowed to leave. So they put in half an effort.

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          2. I rarely chime in on this site but I wanted to on this post. I guess I’m in the minority but I thought admitting he was at the scene was brilliant because the prosecution had rested and couldn’t address the issue and call witnesses (the two guys with AH) to testify. It also brings up a strong case for reasonable doubt in my opinion. It’s all BS and the jury made the correct call but I thought the strategy of introducing that on closing was smart.

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  10. Glad to see Dale & Holley (and JT) doing solid numbers. Appalled to see the Douche & YARM pulling those kinds of numbers in. Benefiting from the Bruins and Patriots, but like I said when I finally swore those two jagoff’s off – HOW can you be a fan of the local teams and listen to that show? It defies logic.

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  11. So I guess that Stern wannabe isn’t the savior after all for D&C. I have to believe they’re backsliding again because of the management at WEEI. D&C likes that the new PD took the reigns off them to talk non stop Fox news talking points but the listeners don’t. Not a coincidence that since they went back to being the Sean Hannity wrap up show that their surge at toppling T&R has regressed to what they were before. But yeah now it’s the signal. The signal wasn’t a problem last summer when they regained the top slot for a time.

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    1. I understand you do not like their politics…I happen to not mind them but that is personal taste. For me D&C’s sports content is 10x’s that of the barely prepubescent T&R show. So the issue as I see it has got to be generational. I don’t think Minihane as a third wheel is the answer. I think that if they want to beat T&R outright they need a new younger sports centered show that does more with call in guests…maybe 3 an hour…and less with callers. It is not going to happen but they need to be thinking outside the box.

      Likewise at midday I think the MFB experiment needs to be put out of its misery. I think it is time for either the Bradford & Minihane show or maybe the return of Dale and Holley and then put Bradford and Minihane on at drive. They may think the midday is not important but it is from a perception angle. If it is perceived to be lower quality then the rest of the show brands suffer.

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      1. Bradford? As of this mornings news it sure seems Kirk is one step closer to finally getting the show but Bradford? I’m sorry I don’t see it. Bradford is a writer and it should stay that way. And no Tanguay either. His fills in remind us of why he was fired from everywhere.

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        1. We all agree that Tanguay is an empty voice. Although he seems much more at ease back on WEEI with Jerry than he ever did at 98.5. Could just be the morning show format, could be he is not trying to rock any boats or make any points. I will always believe the best job for him is flashboy where he does not have to opine.

          As for Bradford, he and Minihane aside from being good friends make a pretty good team. Individually I am not really fans of either of them but as a team I would listen. Bradford has grown up in his time a WEEI.com. I think he deserves more air time. More importantly a Minihane/Bradford show would be significantly better both structurally and content wise than MFB.

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          1. I love Bradford as a writer who sits in to give us baseball info, but a radio host he is not. I truly don’t mean it as a personal insult but his voice was not made to be listened to for 4 hours every day. Some people have good voices that are easy to listen to, some people don’t. Exhibit A for easy to listen to is John Dennis. Whatever else his faults are, he’s a pro when it comes to talking and running a show.

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  14. They must have both hit it when they were throwing darts at the topics written on the board for “things to rail against”

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  15. Always loved her, but the Globe-induced anti-Patriots sludge took some shine off the apple.

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  16. Fauria is another one like Rob Bradford- his voice just wasn’t meant to be broadcast out for public consumption for 4 hours a day.

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