Globe Disappointments

I'm a loyal Boston Globe reader, and a subscriber, but I've been considering ditching my daily reading with the paper's recent price hikes.

Today, two Globe stories made me roll my eyes and gag at the poor level of journalism at the paper — which only helps me part with the broadsheet sooner rather than later.

First, the Globe chose what I considered a shoddy story for front-page prominence. Two photos, a 24-point (I approximate) headline and a deck — plus a good six six inches of copy — informed the Greater Boston area of the sad loss of Freddy the Turkey.

I'm not joking.

The bird was shot after stopping traffic and being aggressive toward some people, "but many are unconvinced and say the bird deserved better...his untimely departure has struck a wistful chord."

Apparently, local residents were very attached to this bird. I'll withhold judgment on them, but the Globe — ?

The other story I object to is also an animal story. Animal articles don't bother me, but I'd like to see some sort of relevance, especially if a story bunps a war or a massive fire off the front page of the Metro section, which today's "Deciphering the message in Fido's bark" did (the latter, that is).

The article talked about researchers analyzing a dog's bark and the reason for it, which I found mildly interesting until outrage hit at paragraph seven.

The quote, from some sort of expert: "They (dogs) are occupying such an important role in our lives. If you're trying to stop a dog barking, it makes a difference if you think it's barking because it wants to talk to you or because it's frightened and wants to call your assistance."

Can someone please tell Captain Obvious that we're aware that it's important to figure out whether we need to let the dog out or grab a shotgun to fight off a robber, but that doesn't mean we need a scientific analysis of a dog's bark?

Please tell me there wasn't public funding for this research. I'm pretty sure if you can't figure out why your dog is barking, you're not going to be reading a psychological finding on animal research of a dog's bark.

This had the potential to be an OK article, but that quote sunk it quick.

[A couple reader comments on this article were funny; check out MedfordMickey's and blahblah234's.]