Howie and the Herald

Published Mar 10 2006, 03:48 PM by webteam

FRONT PAGE

Ok, so the Herald is having some real fun today letting Howie Carr talk tough to the gangsters who allegedly wanted to whack him. (Somehow this all feels like a promo for the return of the Sopranos, although obviously it's about book and newspaper sales.) To me, the noteworthy thing about this whole episode is that for the first time in a long time, Howie feels like an integral part of the Herald again.

For many years, Howie really was the Herald, its best known journalist and biggest personality. In recent years though, he's spent more time and energy on his more lucrative gig as a WRKO talk radio host and the phrase sometimes used to describe his Herald work was "mailing it in." When the paper was making a series of painful newsroom cuts last year, there was even some buzz that maybe Howie would be cut loose -- something once unthinkable given how closely he was identified with the tabloid and his larger-than-life image as the paper's hack-bashing marquee columnist.

It's a marriage of convenience and it might not last long. But for now at least, Howie and the Herald are once again connected at the hip.