Tag: Media

Aug 26

2024

A newspaper like few others

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Daily newspapers are tanking all over the county, including here in Buffalo. But not everywhere. The Minneapolis Star Tribune just announced a major investment to add reporters and open bureaus across the state, share content with hyperlocal news sites, and establish a philanthropic arm. It will henceforth be known as Minnesota Star Tribune to reflect its broader scope of coverage Reported The New York Times: The expansion is a rare big bet in the newspaper industry. Local newspapers have been shrinking across the country in recent years. A 2023 report from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern found that almost[...]

Posted 8 months ago

Aug 12

2024

Free speech may not be as popular as the Buffalo Bills

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Mark Sommer of The Buffalo News has a good read on a new policy imposed by the Chautauqua Institute that stifles demonstrations, apparently out of fear that protesters  advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza might show up at their gated community. (No one has.)  Some folks are OK with the move, others are not, accusing the institute of betraying its  self-proclaimed support of democracy and free speech. On one hand, the move is kind of surprising, given Chautauqua’s reputation.  Then again, a lot of Democrats, including big city mayors who cracked down on Gaza demonstrators on college campuses this spring,[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Aug 5

2024

DOT plays gotcha on the Scajaquada Expressway

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The Scajaquada Expressway isn’t a toll road. Not technically.  But the state Department of Transportation has turned it into a moneymaker by surreptitiously installing speed detection cameras under the guise that a stretch of the roadway is a construction zone. As a result, DOT has been issuing a lot of speeding tickets – in the thousands, by the department’s own admission – to motorists. WKBW first reported on the situation, here and here, followed by The Buffalo News.  As The News reported: Patrick Freeman, a retired police officer who spent 30 years on SUNY Buffalo State University’s force, has filed[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 29

2024

Trump vs. Harris: The heavyweight battle begins

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I like to lead my Monday Morning Read with something local, but how can you ignore the presidential election? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems every time Donald Trump or J.D. Vance open their mouths, they alienate non-MAGA voters and turbo-charge supporters of Kamala Harris.  Take, for example, Trump’s pronouncement the other day that there will be no need for elections in four years should he win the White House in November. Here’s a story and, better yet, the video. Then there’s the proposal floated by Vance in 2021 to give voters with children more clout at the polls[...]

Posted 9 months ago

Jul 22

2024

Joe Biden: American Patriot

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Politicians tend to be egotistical, me-first creatures. That’s what makes President Biden’s decision to withdraw as a candidate that much more remarkable. He faced facts and put his country ahead of his ego.  Good for him, and good for us. Lindsey Graham, before he went to the dark side, described Biden as “as good a man as God ever created.” I wouldn’t go that far, but he’s been a good president who struck me as a decent human being – Gaza notwithstanding. While his legacy is yet to be written, it will no doubt include him saving us from another[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jul 15

2024

Buffalo’s ever-present hole in the ground

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You could have read this, and more, yesterday if you subscribed to our newsletters. Doing so is just a click away. Perhaps nothing symbolizes the inertia that holds Buffalo back more than the site of the now demolished Memorial Auditorium. Portions have been redeveloped, most notably Explore & More, but much of the property remains a hole in the ground – literally – 15 years after the Aud was demolished. The inaction has been under the watch of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., a state agency, and Mayor Byron Brown. The lack of action was in the news last[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jul 8

2024

Our entitled elected officials

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Erie County Legislator John Bargnesi recently proposed term limits for Erie County elected officials. Most legislators were cool to the idea and County Executive Mark Poloncarz said last week he’d veto term limits if they landed on his desk. Poloncarz used the tired excuse that elections serve the same purpose. But they don’t. Paul Wolf of the New York Coalition for Open Government did a tally of county election results from 2001 to 2023. Incumbents won 145 of 154 elections. “We don’t have competitive elections for Erie County offices and we should,” Wolf wrote county legislators last week. “ What[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jul 1

2024

A lot of people are cutting the cable chord

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The cable TV business is starting to implode. The decline started in 2014 and is gaining speed. This chart tells it all.  Cable’s decline has implications for local TV news, as retransmission fees paid by cable providers are a major source of revenue for stations.  Newscasts here in Buffalo have lost one-third of their audience since 2019. It’s part of a national trend. In 2018, 41 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew Research said they preferred television news over other sources. That number today is 32 percent. People prefer online sources, 48 percent. Printed newspapers and radio trail badly, with[...]

Posted 10 months ago
Investigative Post