Boston Globe Ignores Bribes Paid to State Treasurer Tim Cahill, Appears to Favor Organized Gambling
       Yesterday we broke the news about State Treasurer Tim Cahill taking tens of thousands of dollars from out-of-state gambling companies in return for contracts for new gambling programs in the Bay State.
       Not only has the Boston Globe ignored this unfolding scandal, but it has attempted to make the whole subject whimsical and silly, running a front-page story yesterday with a picture of a jockey and his horse, and saying that the State House rally for slots included “a horse, of course”.
       The donations to Cahill from two manufacturers of slot machines have continued unabated. His office has maintained in the past that there is “no connection” between the flow of money from gambling companies, and the awarding of contracts. However, a spokesperson for GTECH, one of the slot machine manufacturers, a company indicted in other states for bribery, has stated publicly that his company has lobbyists on Beacon Hill expressly for the purpose of securing contracts for gaming machines, should Massachusetts vote in favor of adding slots to its four racetracks.
       Over the last few months, the Globe has gone the extra distance to spin stories in favor of the gambling initiatives. At the same time, it has ignored reliable information that disproves the grandiose claims of the gambling industry.
       For example, the Globe ran a front-page story on March 13th with the headline: “Most in State Poll Back Slot Machines”. It cited results from a poll that was done by the University of New Hampshire for it, which showed that a small majority of those polled were favorable to slot machines. However, the poll itself was actually about gubernatorial candidates. Only three of the thirty-nine questions had anything to do with gambling. Furthermore, the poll was apparently worded by the Globe to achieve that result favoring gambling. The respondents were asked a question that stated “Supporters argue that this will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to the State of Massachusetts”. Those polled were never told that the promise of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue is regarded by most unbiased experts as pure fantasy.
       The Globe has repeated this claim of financial windfall for the state in almost every article written on the subject. However, the most comprehensive study done on the subject in recent days flatly contradicts the pie-in-the-sky claims of the gaming industry.