Category: Brookline.News

Brookline author Michelle Amazeen turns a critical eye in her new book to an increasingly common form of advertising that resembles news articles and can confuse readers.

Amazeen, an associate professor of mass communication at Boston University, spoke Thursday at BU’s Institute for Global Sustainability, joined by former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson,.

Amazeen’s book, “Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation,” focuses on the harmful nature of so-called native advertising, which she described in an interview with Brookline.News as “content that mimics content around it.”

Many news organizations, especially legacy outlets, publish articles that resemble news stories but are really paid advertisements. These ads, Amazeen said, are a major source of revenue for some news outlets, many of which are facing financial challenges.

During her talk, Amazeen zeroed in on how fossil fuel companies utilize native ads – also known as sponsored content – as a way to reframe themselves in the climate change conversation. Amazeen showed an example from The New York Times , a post exploring “how scientists are tapping algae and plant waste to fuel a sustainable future.” The headline suggested this science was “the future of energy,” when it was actually an ad paid for by ExxonMobil.

“They leverage this practice a lot,” Amazeen said. “And sometimes what they’re claiming in their sponsored content contradicts what’s coming out of the newsroom.”

Many publications now have in-house content studios – internal teams, distinct from the newsroom, that write articles painting advertisers in a favorable light. These articles usually include labels such as “sponsored content” or “from our partners,” but they can sow confusion by disorienting readers who may not notice the labels.

The way we get information is constantly shifting, particularly now with the advent of generative AI and the proliferation of deep fakes, Amazeen said. Such developments reinforce the need for journalistic integrity.

“People don’t have the time to verify the accuracy of all the stuff that is coming out on social media,” Amazeen said. “So who should they be turning to only be putting up accurate information? Our news media, our news outlets.”

The proliferation of sponsored content can demoralize journalists and affect news coverage, Amazeen said. Some studies cited in her book show that news companies’ reporting on a specific company decreases after they run native advertisements. Companies, especially those that have been known for negative climate impacts, want to “borrow the halo of credibility” from news organizations that readers trust, Amazeen said.

Ashley Dwyer, a BU Earth and Environment PhD candidate who was in the audience at the talk, said similar conversations about how to effectively communicate information to the public occur in her lab. 

“These companies are trying to continue the status quo of how we treat the Earth,” Dwyer said. For people who casually consume news, she said it can be hard to discern an article from advertisement. 

Melissa Martin, another Earth and Environment PhD candidate in the audience, said she agreed. 

“It’s too much for an average person to consider,” Martin said. “It’s unfair to put responsibility on a reader who is now working under a changed contract with the news.” 

Before writing about native advertising, Amazeen studied the emergence of the fact-checking movement and the effects of misleading political ads on consumers, and co-edited the book “Key Thinkers in Critical Communication Scholarship: From the Pioneers to the Next Generation.” She became interested in the phenomenon of native advertising around 2016, when she read the book “Black Ops Advertising” by Mara Einstein, which is where she borrowed the term “content confusion” from. 

Amazeen, who said she considers herself a news advocate, said worries that some people may try to weaponize her book to discredit news. She said she wants to push to eliminate native advertising that can subvert the integrity of news publications. 

“I don’t want to leave everybody in a depressed state,” Amazeen said.

“But you want to leave them on alert,” Abramson said.

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

Legendary Brookline High School football coach Ed Schluntz, who influenced thousands of student athletes’ lives across his decades-long career, died on Thanksgiving Day.

The namesake of the high school’s gymnasium was 99.

A star athlete at Franklin High School and Tufts University, Schluntz joined the BHS community in 1953 as a coach and English teacher. He served as head football coach from 1960 to 1982 and retired as athletic director in 1990 after 20 years in the role, according to The Boston Globe .

After his retirement, he served as Harvard University’s freshman football coach from 1990 to 1994.

Schluntz was honored in 1968 with The Boston Globe’s High School Football Coach of the Year Award and in 1980 as the Massachusetts Athletic Director of the Year, according to the National Football Foundation . He received in 1978 the Contribution to Amateur Football Award from the Eastern Massachusetts chapter of the NFF and Hall of Fame.

Schluntz also coached JV baseball and varsity basketball at BHS. He is an inductee of the BHS and Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Halls of Fame.

Joe Campagna, celebrated Brookline baseball coach and a former BHS Hall of Fame committee member with Schluntz, said Thanksgiving was Schluntz’s favorite holiday because of the annual rivalry games between Brookline and Newton North.

Campagna said Schluntz’s wife, Gloria, who died Nov. 4, once told him that in the 1960s the couple would drive to the Thanksgiving games, and they “had seven great rides down there, and three rides where not a word was broken.”

“I said, ‘That means Brookline won seven and lost three.’ She said, ‘Exactly,’” Campagna said with a laugh.

Schluntz was vice president of the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Association in 1970 and chairman of the organization’s committee that collaborated with the former Massachusetts Secondary School Principals Association to establish the Massachusetts high school Super Bowl in 1972 .

“We are who we are, where we are, now because of him,” said MHSFCA executive board member Tom Lopez, who added that Schluntz would be on the “Mount Rushmore” of Massachusetts high school football.

For a time, Schluntz was the only high school coach in the United States to serve on the National Collegiate Athletic Association rules committee, Campagna said, adding it was a testament to how “highly respected” he was as a coach.

Joe Davis (BHS class of 1960), a former Northeastern football captain whose induction into the BHS Hall of Fame Schluntz sponsored, and other former BHS athletes worked with the Brookline Community Foundation to establish the Edward Schluntz Scholarship Fund  in May, which Davis said will provide an annual scholarship to a BHS student athlete to “carry on his name.” 

“He’s got a new legacy,” Davis said. 

The first day Schluntz joined BHS football, Steve Forman (BHS ’59) was surprised the new assistant coach handling the linemen was doing the players’ calisthenic drills with them — and doing them better. 

“He was someone you didn’t dare let up [in front of], because he was doing it at the same time,” Forman said. 

Bob Hillson (BHS ’62) had a 71-year relationship with Schluntz — starting with a sixth-grade Hillson coached by Schluntz in baseball at the Edith C. Baker School and evolving into lunches every few months over the last 10 years. Hillson said one of Schluntz’s favorite sayings was, “Whatever you decide to do, be the best at it.”

“That kind of embodies Mr. Schluntz,” Hillson said, beginning to reminisce on his years playing football and basketball for Schluntz at BHS. “He was ruthlessly fair with every single one of his players. He did not have favorites, and he expected your best, whatever it was, in practice and in a game.”

Ahead of Schluntz’s 90th birthday in 2016, Hillson recalled some BHS alums beginning to plan a celebration consisting of 12 people. His reaction was, “Twelve? Are you serious?”

The celebration became a blowout tribute at the Newton Marriott hotel with 150 former BHS athletes  in attendance. 

A common thread among Schluntz’s former players is the self-confidence and discipline he instilled that allowed them to achieve on and off of Harry Downes Field and Schluntz Gym.

Michael Forbes (BHS ’68) said he and his teammates shared a “reverence” for Schluntz. Forbes added he is unsure whether he would have gone to college had it not been for the BHS athletic program and Schluntz’s coaching. He ended up playing football for four years at the University of Rhode Island.

“I was not someone who’s full of confidence, but he instilled that in me,” Forbes said. His voice breaking, he repeated what Schluntz had told him: “Mike, you can do this.”

Thomas Mahon (BHS ’70), a former baseball and football player who went on to play minor league baseball after graduation, called Schluntz a “class guy” who would do anything to help his players get into college and ensure “he was able to help you move on.”

During Forman’s junior year, he said, he wrecked his knee, and by his senior year the injury had worsened. However, Schluntz pushed Forman to take a few games off and garner his strength to play in the annual Thanksgiving Day game.

“It would happen to be the best game I ever played,” said Forman, who credits that game for securing him a football scholarship to the University of Massachusetts. “And if it wasn’t for Ed Schluntz, I wouldn’t have come back.”

A celebration of life for Ed and Gloria Schluntz is planned for May 28, according to the Globe. This date would have marked Schluntz’s 100th birthday.

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

The first two $750 monthly payments have gone out to 53 Brookline residents enrolled in a new guaranteed income program.

The Brookline Housing Authority announced the program in April with the intention of providing $250 monthly checks to low-income housing residents but tripled the payments to $750 through a partnership with the Brookline Community Foundation that formed over the summer. 

The program, called UpTogether Brookline, will run for a year. It is integrated into a five-year coaching and asset building course offered by the housing authority to Section 8 voucher holders and housing authority residents.

Laura, a 39-year-old with a son in second grade, enrolled in the housing authority’s self-sufficiency program in October and shortly after was invited to enroll in the guaranteed income program. A Section 8 voucher holder, she is a case worker for homeless families in shelters, earning $48,000 a year in a town where the median household income is $140,000 . She asked to only be identified by her first name to protect her privacy. 

For the past few years, she said, she has been struggling with living paycheck to paycheck but dreams of fixing her credit and buying a house. The self-sufficiency program is a way for her to take steps towards realizing those goals, she said.

“I just feel like this has been a big blessing in the moment,” Laura said, pausing to compose herself. “Sorry, I’m getting emotional. It’s such a huge relief when you need it.”

Both organizations had separate plans to roll out a guaranteed income program after receiving American Rescue Plan Act grants, a federal stimulus package meant to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those grants, plus additional money from the community foundation, fund the $536,000 income project.

“We sought to look for ways that could really impact economic mobility for the people who experience the greatest need – which in Brookline, we also know, disproportionately includes people of color,” said Zoraida Fernandez, co-president of the Brookline Community Foundation. 

For Karen Lajara, a 50-year-old with four daughters living in a BHA residence, the guaranteed income program has helped her clean out credit card debt and given her confidence in her goal of buying a house. As a financial plan specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center making $52,000 a year, Lajara said she has long worried about the future of her daughters, especially as a breast cancer patient who is constantly anxious she may not be able to provide for them as she does now. With the guaranteed income, she feels closer to stability.

“I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, finally,” Lajara said. “It’s my motivation to keep going.” 

Other communities in greater Boston have implemented guaranteed income programs, with Somerville, Cambridge and Chelsea having their own versions.

Danielle Mendola, BHA’s resident service programs director, said UpTogether Brookline was modeled after the economic stability plan in Newton , which combined ARPA grant money and economic coaching from advisers. 

While the housing authority hopes to continue expanding its economic mobility and self-sufficiency programs, the guaranteed income program will last only 12 months, said BHA executive director Ben Stone. 

Similarly, Fernandez said the community foundation hopes to be a part of a program like this for years to come. By providing stability for people without policing them, you allow them to meet their potential, she said. 

“Knowing that the participants are hard workers, they’ve got goals,” Mendola said. “And by supporting them, it’s really helping to make a more equitable Brookline, and that has benefits for everyone, the community at large.”

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

About a mile from his college stomping grounds, director Josh Safdie came to Brookline and encouraged young film students to never take “no” for an answer and do everything they can to create. 

The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s main moviehouse packed Friday night for an advance screening of Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” which is set to release Dec. 25. Starring Timothée Chalamet as the titular Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman in 1950s New York who will do anything to make it in the world of international table tennis, the film marks Safdie’s solo directorial debut. 

Sean Hucknall and Roy Gentes, two seniors at Emerson College studying film, attended the screening at the Coolidge and said they enjoyed Safdie’s new film.

“I thought it was this really interesting take on an epic, and the way it interweaves storylines was amazingly edited,” Hucknall said.

Safdie and his brother, Benny, are Boston University alums known for critically acclaimed films including “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” Immediately following the screening was a Q&A between Safdie and Charles Merzbacher, his former film professor at BU. 

Merzbacher said Safdie reached out to him to organize Friday’s screening and Q&A. He was the chair of BU’s Film and Television Department during Safdie’s time at the university, and he said Safdie approached him to be his adviser as he produced four films over one semester. Students typically spend a semester creating one to two films, Merzbacher said, but that didn’t stop Safdie from achieving his goal.

“He’s got this creative motor that doesn’t stop,” Merzbacher said. “His life is a creative act. I think every minute, even right now, he’s probably thinking of ideas or people he just met that could be turned into stories.”

Lauren De Geus, a junior at BU studying film and public relations who attended Friday’s screening, said she feels the Safdie brothers are a “source of pride for BU.” She added she admires Safdie’s determination to create as an undergraduate film student. 

“Him being able to make four [films] and actually make it happen just shows incredible work ethic and the ability to keep going,” De Geus said.

During the Q&A, Safdie highlighted the elements of his life that made their way into “Marty Supreme.” Safdie has played table tennis since he was a kid, he said, and in 2018 his wife found a book by American table tennis champion Marty Reisman at a thrift store — which catalyzed Safdie’s 10-year journey bringing “Marty Supreme” to life.

He said he was inspired by the “misfits” of the American table tennis scene, who “believed in something that nobody believed in.”

“Their dream was a joke to people, and that hardened them, and it made them feel more urgent,” Safdie told Merzbacher. “Every day that passed that they couldn’t see that dream through was another day of embarrassment.”

Safdie said Chalamet was perfect for the role of Marty Mauser, and he wrote it for the actor. He told the story of when he first met Chalamet at a party, shortly after his film “Call Me By Your Name” came out, and unbeknownst to Safdie, Chalamet and his friend were “pretending to be on acid.”

“I saw a kid who had a very supreme vision of himself,” Safdie said. “He was ‘Timmy Supreme.’”

Students expressed admiration for Safdie’s persistence when making his student films. Many cited one story in which Safdie was at a red light and asked the driver stopped next to him if he could borrow his car for a film — to which the driver said yes.

Hucknall said this quality pervades through Safdie’s work, including in his films “The Pleasure of Being Robbed,” “Heaven Knows What” and “Good Time.” 

“You get a sense of, someone could do it on the street, and it feels like I could make a film like that,” Hucknall said.

Gentes said he’s been “obsessed” with Safdie’s work since “Good Time” came out, and he has even “directly copied” Safdie’s cinematography style when making his own student films. Gentes said he and Hucknall have watched Safdie’s early shorts and student films, and they are inspired by his grit when pursuing projects.

“You have to have the determination to finish it,” Gentes said.

Merzbacher echoed Gentes’ takeaway, adding he wants film students at the screening to learn from Safdie’s persistence.

“He evinces this unstoppable confidence,” Merzbacher said. “Nothing will stop him from making things, and I think that’s very infectious … I hope that rubs off on people here.”

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

The Michelin Guide has awarded Brookline Thai tapas restaurant Mahaniyom a coveted stamp of approval. 

Known for its strict restaurant reviews, Michelin is one of the world’s most celebrated food guides. It revealed its picks for the Northeast Cities Guide Tuesday night in Philadelphia, where Boston restaurants received their first awards from the company since it started giving out its coveted stars in 1926. Boston’s 311 Omakese got the region’s only star, while Mahaniyom received a Bib Gourmand, a distinction reserved for restaurants that serve “hgih-quality food at a great value,” according to the Michelin Guide. 

In the heart of Brookline Village, Mahaniyom specializes in small plates rooted in the casual “Ran-Lao” style of Thai dining, featuring dishes like Kang pu crabmeat curry and pomelo salad. The Michelin Guide also recognized the creativity of Mahaniyom’s drink menu, awarding one of the owners, Chompon “Boong” Boonnak, the Exceptional Cocktails Award. 

“Everyone here puts themselves into their work,” Boonak said. “Our flavor is something we want to do best and not compromise.” 

Boonnak and his childhood friend Smuch Saikamthorn opened the intimate, two-dozen-seat restaurant in 2020, just three weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With the help of their team, the Brookline community and local publicity, Bonnak said, the restaurant thrived during quarantine by pivoting to takeout. They also opened a sister restaurant,  a dive bar concept nearby on Harvard Street, last year.

Since the Michelin announcement, Mahaniyom has experienced an influx of reservations. Boonnak, who got back to Brookline Thursday afternoon after receiving the award in Philadelphia, said the restaurant expects to start having to book reservations a month out, whereas it used to book a week or two in advance. Still, he wants to keep walk-ins a viable option for the business, which is open for lunch and dinner every day except Tuesday.

“That’s the charm of the business,” Boonak said. “We want to keep having people come in, and we want to feed everybody, to seat everybody we can.”

Benjamin Kaye-Smith ate there Wednesday night after a co-worker told him about the Michelin honors.

“Everything was excellent,” said Kaye-Smith, a sous chef at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, who is currently working at TD Garden. He cited the pomelo salad and pork cheek as favorites, alongside the Eleven Tigers shot – a traditional Thai herbal-infused rum. 

Jesse Choi and Kaitlinh Nguyen, Boston University seniors who live in the Brookline area, dined at Mahaniyom for the first time that same night but had not heard about the awards. 

“It makes sense, because I think that was one of the best meals I’ve had in a while,” Choi said after hearing about the Michelin award.

Nguyen had seen the restaurant’s high rankings on the app Beli and had seen that Boonak is a BU alum.

Outside the restaurant, a woman walked by and backtracked, looking into the large front windows. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the sign. Another couple passed by, and one said, “This is the place I told you about.” 

Alyssa Zhang, 16, and her grandmother Alice Lee praised the restaurant after enjoying dishes that included the crab curry and pomelo salad. Zhang said she had seen the Michelin recognition, which inspired her to go. Lee said she hadn’t heard about the award but trusted that wherever her granddaughter took her to eat would be great.

“We will come back again,” Lee said. “It was delicious.” 

Despite the increased recognition, Boonak said he wants to keep the space intimate.

“I want people to know this is a place they can come and hang out,” Boonak said. “I want to continue being a neighborhood space, and we want to be the best in service, best in hospitality.”

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.