Tag: Media

Oct 20

2025

The Niagara County angle to national scandal

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You may have read about the private chats among Young Republican operatives in four states, including New York, that went public via a report by Politico, which summarized the content as follows: They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. Then there was the quote “I love Hitler.” The response from MAGA types varied. The New York Republican Party disbanded the state chapter of the Young Republicans. Vice[...]

Posted 4 days ago

Oct 13

2025

Will a judge and jury believe this narc?

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To hear Erie County Sheriff John Garcia tell it, D.J. Granville has an unblemished record as his chief of narcotics. Except he doesn’t, as reported by Charlie Specht. The key evidence seized from a Buffalo home associated with [David] Burgin was thrown out of court after Granville and other members of his narco unit were caught on video allegedly staging evidence, conducting illegal searches, and misleading a judge, court records show. A federal judge wrote that the case revealed “damning evidence of … unlawful conduct by law enforcement officers” and said Granville’s actions were “an egregious violation of the Fourth[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 6

2025

The beginning of the end of the Buffalo News’ print edition

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The Buffalo News announced Friday that it will stop printing a Monday edition starting Nov. 3. It’s part of an industry trend, with some dailies publishing print editions as infrequently as three days a week. The News’ print circulation continues to spiral downward. Paid circulation has dwindled to an average of 23,792 according to the annual publisher’s statement filed in June with the United States Postal Service. Digital subscriptions were 67,430. The numbers pale in comparison with peak print circulation in the 1990s of over 300,000 daily and 400,000 on Sundays. Why eliminate the Monday edition? It’s one of the[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Sep 29

2025

MAGA’s media takeover

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Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress First Amendment rights — Jimmy Kimmel being the most obvious example — are only part of the picture. Perhaps even more ominous are efforts by Trump-aligned billionaires to buy media outlets. It’s already started with the purchase of CBS’ parent company by a conglomerate controlled by the son of Larry Ellison, the 81-year-old tech oligarch who is a generous campaign contributor and advocate of the type of Big Brother surveillance society imposed by the Chinese government on its people. Reports Oligarch Watch on Larry Ellison: “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Sep 22

2025

Buffalo Bills among NFL teams honoring Charlie Kirk

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Terry Pegula waved his right-wing flag Thursday by asking Bills fans to observe a moment of silence honoring Charlie Kirk prior to the game vs. the Miami Dolphins. The team also flashed Kirk’s image on the stadium scoreboard in the third quarter.  I’m told fan reaction was mixed, more confused than anything. No word on how the players felt about it, especially Black players, given Kirk’s proclamations that Martin Luther King was “awful,” the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake” and accomplished Black women including former First Lady Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson “do not have[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 19

2025

More cuts coming at The Buffalo News

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The Buffalo News is cutting its newsroom staff again and dropping content from The New York Times. Management informed their newsroom staff of the moves at a meeting Thursday. No hard number is attached to the staff reductions, which would be effective in early November. Up to five cuts are likely. Buyouts will be offered and layoffs imposed if necessary.  The newsroom staff is approximately 45. It’s down from a peak of over 200 in the 1980s. That number had shrunk to about 85 when Lee Enterprises bought The News five years ago. This time a year ago 10 jobs[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 15

2025

A tax subsidy that’s not funny

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There are a lot of ways to look at New York’s tax credit program intended to keep film and television producers working in the Empire State. The tax credits are projected to total $920 million this year. The subsidy works out to an average of $65,000 per job. The return on investment: about $1 in tax revenue for every $3 in subsidy. Put another way, during the first three months of this year, the producers of Saturday Night Live received more tax breaks than anyone, some $21 million, or $83,000 per job. (To not be very funny, I might add.)[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Sep 8

2025

The Good (Tish James), the Bad (Trump) and the Ugly (Musk’s trillion dollar pay package)

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I’ve long thought Attorney General Letitia James should be doing more to prosecute political corruption in New York. But I’ve got to hand it to her: She’s no slouch when it comes to Donald Trump, as detailed in a profile in the current edition of The Nation. “No attorney general in the country is battling President Donald Trump more proficiently—and drawing more of his fire—than James,” wrote The Nation. “James and her partner AGs have hit the president with a barrage of lawsuits that have temporarily halted some of his worst orders in the past seven months.” “In their quest[...]

Posted 2 months ago
Investigative Post