Channel 5 Boston stunt reporter turns attention towards potent devil’s lettuce
The year was 2016. Allstonians were revelling as usual. Until some snitches crashed the party, and an iconic Hub media yarn was spun.
In retrospect, the topic of the news report in question—rogue underground college keggers—is far less memorable than the response to its airing. Chris Caesar of the Boston Metro reported at the time:
Some unhappy with a recent story at Boston’s WCVB are taking an unusual approach this week in making their concerns known: by accusing one of its investigative journalists of secretly drinking his own urine.
While the allegation doesn’t quite pass the smell test, it hasn’t stopped a small internet mob from tweeting, writing Facebook comments, and even organizing call-in campaigns to the ABC affiliate’s offices to demand that journalist Mike Beaudet answer for his alleged proclivities.
The offense that led to so much trolling? Gotcha hack extraordinaire Beaudet had channeled both the DEA and legendary campus killjoy Dean Wormer by infiltrating a typical house party and subsequently exposing a boozy and unregulated scene. Even sadder, he enlisted student journalists to do the undercover dirty work.
As a result, Allston party people faced some fallout, and a meme and metaphor was born that could apply to all media makers who worship the smell of their own farts. It’s simple and memorable: Mike Beaudet drinks his own pee, a charge that’s as hilarious as it’s preposterous.
This week, Beaudet is back kneeling at the urinal, pee funnel agape, closely covering the scourge of cannabis in Massachusetts. For their first installment, his team dropped some standard prohibition-minded propaganda—“‘Age matters’: Doctor offers revealing look at cannabis’ impact on young brains”—letting one physician hatchet straw men in the name of saving kids who aren’t allowed to buy weed from the weed that they aren’t legally allowed to buy.
Tuesday’s sequel ran under the measured headline “Cannabis crisis: Psychosis and addiction impacting Massachusetts teens and young adults.” A rare news piece that is beyond parody, it actually features a mother and son speaking with their faces blurred out like mob informants. Here’s more from Beaudet’s coverage:
“Words couldn’t really describe what was going on,” the teen said, who along with his mother spoke to 5 Investigates on the condition they not be identified. “Sometimes I would be out to dinner or something and I would literally feel like I wasn’t in a body. And then there were other times where I would hear voices.”
And on Wednesday, Beaudet returned with another ringer: “As concern grows over impact of cannabis in Mass., new attention to old health warnings.” Yeah, new attention—from WCVB, which is apparently referring to itself in the same breath as recognizing that their big investigation is little more than regurgitation. But that doesn’t make it any less hilarious:
Grace Sullivan experienced another issue from her heavy use: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. It causes severe vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain. “I almost died from using marijuana,” she said.
I’ve spoken my piece on CHS, which is very real but also hardly warrants such hysterics. Beyond that, nothing in Beaudet’s piss yellow journalism deserves a serious response. It’s basically the same old gambit he ran way back in his basement days, so I’ll just quote comedian Dicky J. Stock, who called the 2016 segment “an attack on Allston subculture.”
“When I saw the actual piece I was totally blown away by how unprofessional it was,” Stock told the Metro. “I was angry, and I know this sounds silly, but I recalled an old rumor that he engaged in drinking his own urine. I think he should address his own vices, true or not, if he’s going to attack an entire subculture.”
