The Boston Globe has struck again.

The newspaper, with corporate offices here at 135 Morrissey Blvd. In Dorchester, has a new feature on its website, boston.com, called "Boston's Modern Must Sees,"

Among these modern sights to be seen, it lists "The world's largest copyrighted piece of artwork," the Corita Kent gas tank.

Problem is, the Globe tells visitors that this modern marvel is located "off route 93, south of Boston. Location: South Boston. Public Transportation: Broadway (Red Line.)"

What is there to say or do about this latest Globe gaffe? Do you imagine the boston.com staff gets off at Broadway and walks to their offices at 135 Morrissey Blvd.? Do they really think their place of work is "south of Boston," not Dorchester? Is Broadway station really the closest T stop to our gas tank?

The story underscores a lamentable problem which continues to plague many of our city's older, larger institutions: absentee ownership. More and more, the long-standing voices of Boston-based managers are becoming lost in the culture of non-native proprietors. The Globe is a leading example: Since Boston's daily newspaper of record was acquired by the people who own the New York Times, the daily has seemed to have lost much of what was left of its soul. Boston is not home, it's a pass-through, wayside stop on the journalistic road. There's no premium placed on recruiting young reporters who can find their way to Codman Square or Dot Ave. Too bad.

But there are myriad examples:

• The television station formerly known as WBZ is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the mammoth Viacom Corporation - you know, the people who give us Howard Stern every morning. In just two years, Viacom has succeeded in turning Boston's signature 4th of July Boston Pops Esplanade concert into a 58-minute CBS TV show - complete with commercials. Imagine, last Sunday night, they interrupted the climactic moments of the magnificent 1812 Overtrue to run opening credits for the national feed. Later, they paused during the post-concert fireworks display to insert commercials from their sponsors. Ever since David Mugar moved the TV rights from WCVB, which nurtured the event over the years, to the Viacom goldmine, things have gone downhill. Last year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, this year David Lee Roth? And Harry Smith sharing the stage with Pops conductor Keith Lockhart! Just how un-Boston can this event become?

• It once was called First National Bank of Boston, then Bank of Boston, then Fleet - but now it's the Bank of America, with headquarters in Charlotte, NC. A conglomerate, yes; an advantage for the stockholders, probably; but better for Boston and our people? Not very likely.

• What could be more Boston than American patriot John Hancock? For years, we have rooted for our own locally-based insurance company by that name, and the company has been immersed in any number of charitable endeavors throughout the region. But early this year, the company was bought out by a Canadian insurance firm, Manulife. Not a bad company, we are told, and an inevitable step towards consolidation, it is said. But not a Boston firm anymore.

- Ed Forry