Tag: Media

Jan 20

2025

Welcome to 1933

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Donald Trump is sworn in as president today. Welcome to 1933. That’s the year Adolf Hitler came to power. I’m not saying Trump will be another Hitler, but there are eerie parallels to their respective routes to power that should not be ignored. Trump’s more contemporary prototype is Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, termed “the ultimate twenty-first-century dictator.”    An op-ed in last week’s New York Times described Orbán’s playbook: In a second term, Mr. Trump’s actions may be even more dangerous because he is now following the playbook created by Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, who after losing and then[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 13

2025

What is The Buffalo News thinking?

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The vacant Buffalo News building, sold to developer Douglas Jemal. Lee Enterprises bought The Buffalo News nearly five years ago and has vandalized it since. That was never more evident than last week. Let’s start with the extensive use of New York Times obituaries. It’s a pet peeve of mine.  A week ago Sunday, the paper’s local section included no fewer than five such obits, totaling some two pages, almost as much space as as what was devoted to local news in the section.  As is usually the case, the deceased had no connection to Buffalo. In fact, most were[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 7

2025

Geoff Kelly named associate editor

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Geoff Kelly is the new associate editor at Investigative Post. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel Geoff Kelly has been promoted to associate editor of Investigative Post. Kelly has covered government and politics since joining Investigative Post in April 2019.  “Geoff has an encyclopedic knowledge of government and the community at large,” said Jim Heaney, Investigative Post’s editor and executive director. “He’s also got a wealth of editing experience, which will suit him well as he steps into our No. 2 position.” He succeeds Susan Schulman, who shared management of the newsroom until her retirement last month. Heaney and Kelly will share[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 6

2025

Awaiting an avalanche of activity

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The ICE detention center in Batavia could become a very busy place when Donald Trump acts on his campaign pledge to begin mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.  Dan Herbeck of The Buffalo News recently spent time at the facility and produced an inside look at life inside for its 530 detainees and what the future holds. The story notes that there are serious logistical and procedural issues that will likely preclude Trump from deporting immigrants en masse as quickly as he wants. Herbeck’s account includes statements from ICE officials about how well detainees are treated, a claim that’s been disputed[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 3

2025

Bauerle story voted tops in 2024

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Readers have voted Geoff Kelly’s story on the legal battle involving the family of talk radio host Tom Bauerle as Investigative Post’s top story of 2014. The story, published on May 9, detailed claims by the siblings of the WBEN talk show host that he schemed to defraud them of their share of their late mother’s estate. Kelly wrote: The lawsuit, filed May 3, alleges that Bauerle moved in with his mother, Dorothy, during the last two months of her life. Dorothy Bauerle died March 6.  During that period, his siblings claim, Bauerle convinced their mother — “through duress, undue[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Jan 2

2025

Building off a strong year in 2024

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Investigative Post heads into the new year with a head of steam. Traffic to many news websites has flatlined or even dropped the past several years. That’s not the case with Investigative Post. Our pageviews in 2024 jumped by 62 percent and our traffic is more than double what it was in 2021. There’s a variety of reasons for our growth. We produced more content last year than ever, some 250 pieces for our website and another 50 we co-produced with our television partners. We also worked with AlignSimple and the Google News Initiative to develop and implement strategies to[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Dec 29

2024

April Baskin’s results fall short of her rhetoric

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The Buffalo News sure is fond of April Baskin, the outgoing chair of the Erie County Legislature and incoming state senator. In a profile and subsequent editorial, The News portrayed her as an effective champion of social justice.  I beg to differ. The Legislature under her leadership has been a rubber stamp for County Executive Mark Poloncarz. She seems joined at the hip with Democratic Party HQ, which saw to it that she ascended to Tim Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat without serious opposition.   Baskin and her colleagues somehow decided construction of the new Bills stadium didn’t require an environmental impact[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Dec 27

2024

Geoff Kelly’s very busy year

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What did I do in 2024? For starters, I began writing a weekly newsletter called PoliticalPost,  jam-packed with items about local government and politics — patronage hires, electoral maneuvers, the misbehavior of public officials, and much more. It’s free every Wednesday morning. (Though donations to support our nonprofit investigative journalism center are always appreciated.)  If you don’t get it already, you should sign up for it. If you’ve been a subscriber from the get-go, you found out in January — six months before anyone else — that Byron Brown was looking to ditch Buffalo City Hall for the job he[...]

Posted 4 months ago
Investigative Post