Every gangster a maffia boss

A journalese law in Sweden requires that every leading American gangster be identified as a “maffia boss.” This law was dutifully followed by Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest morning daily, on Oct 31, 2018, in a story about Boston murderer and FBI snitch James “Whitey” Bulger. Headline: “Maffiabossen ‘Whitey’ Bulger död i fängelse” (Maffia boss Whitey Bulger dead in prison). The story quotes the Boston Globe, and the text again identifies Bulger as a “maffia boss”, which, of course, the Globe would never be guilty of. Anyone who was alive and awake in Boston in the past 10 years knows that Bulger was an FBI informant against the maffia, and was the mafia’s Enemy Number One. The story says it was reported that Bulger’s killer was “another prisoner with maffia connections.” That is accurate.

File under: Whitey Bulger’s last laugh.