Column Archives

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM IN NOV & DEC, FIRST $10,000 MATCHED DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR

Two-month Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism fundraiser to be amplified by the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Miami Foundation My message is simple this time out: Please give generously to the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism in November or December at givetobinj.org—and be aware that every individual donation of

JASON PRAMAS November 3, 2021

HOW TO TALK TO YOUR FAMILY ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Including a sample Q&A that you can modify for use with your own family For most of us who pay close attention to the progress of the coronavirus pandemic over the last three months, talking to our families about how to stay safe and healthy can be difficult. People don’t

JASON PRAMAS March 27, 2020

THE RIGHT QUESTION FOR THE BROAD LEFT

On July 5, start asking the Democrats, “What policies will help working families?”

JASON PRAMAS July 4, 2019

IT’S TIME TO BRING BACK RENT CONTROL IN MASSACHUSETTS

Some cause for hope in new tenant protection legislation being filed at the State House Yesterday, I saw some good news in the local press. A rarity to be sure. The Boston Globe reported that Rep. Mike Connolly and a coalition of other state legislators are about to file

JASON PRAMAS March 27, 2019

PROPOSED STATE JOURNALISM COMMISSION NEEDS BROADER MEMBERSHIP

IMAGE: Sandstorm State House collage by Jason Pramas (using public domain images) More working journalists, less elite institutes Chris Faraone,* John Loftus,** and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to rebuild American journalism. Pretty much from the ground up, since so many news outlets and jobs in

JASON PRAMAS March 20, 2019

Jason Pramas and Amy Carter at the “Northampton 15” CIA Off Campus Trial in Northampton, MA on April 8, 1987. Stills from WGBH archival video, courtesy of the Boston TV News Digital Library.

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN AN AGE OF EXISTENTIAL THREATS

IMAGE: Jason Pramas and Amy Carter at the “Northampton 15” CIA Off Campus Trial in Northampton, MA on April 8, 1987. Stills from WGBH archival video, courtesy of the Boston TV News Digital Library. This week, a reminder that politics is not a spectator sport. I was listening to a

JASON PRAMAS March 13, 2019

THE FALL OF THE GE BOSTON DEAL, PART II

AG Healey should form independent commission to investigate the failed agreement Last week in the first installment of this two-part column, I ran through the many problems with the January 2016 deal between General Electric, the city of Boston, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that has now collapsed for

JASON PRAMAS March 6, 2019

THE FALL OF THE GE BOSTON DEAL, PART I

The official narrative and the real story Readers might feel that this should be a time for me to take a victory lap. The GE Boston deal that I criticized from the moment it was made public in January 2016 has crashed to Earth a bit over three years later.

JASON PRAMAS February 28, 2019

PUBLIC BAD. PRIVATE GOOD?

Boston Herald’s attack on MassHousing highlights double standard in American journalism

JASON PRAMAS February 6, 2019

Inscription on the Samuel Eliot Morison statue on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston

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

JASON PRAMAS January 30, 2019