Bad news on the doorstep

 
There are two things I find funny about the Buffalo News. Unfortunately, for our endangered overpriced daily (soon to be weekly) newspaper, neither is for the right reasons. 

Their Off Main Street column, where they actually attempt to be humorous, is usually about as funny as a child stricken with cancer. Unfunny people should not attempt humor. It's like when Michael Jordon attempted to be a professional baseball player or Bruce Willis, a singer. It usually doesn't end well. What I do find funny is that anyone would pay 75 cents a day to read Associated Press stories from two weeks ago. 

The other waste of time is their local political endorsements. The News always goes with the favorites of the status quo. This part isn't funny, but when they attempt to justify their endorsement in print, it's pretty hilarious. You end up having two guys and a woman from Williamsville attempt to tell the readers why Joe Blow is the best choice to represent South Buffalo or the Fillmore District. These endorsements are merely ads, just like one of their full page ads for JC Penney. 

I feel bad for A.J. Verel, Kevin Lafferty, or Paddy Burke, if any of them went down to the News interview yesterday thinking they actually had a chance to impress the editorial crooks, err I mean staff. I'm sure by now, the word has already been passed down to the bloodsuckers on Scott Street that Christopher Scanlon is going to be the savior of South Buffalo. It's nothing to be upset about, just business as usual. Thank God that paper is on it's last leg. I invite you three and the growing number of people affected by the News' bias to continue reading yours truly to get a different take on the news. I won't be describing the physical attributes of male subjects like Donny Esmonde, but I'll do my best to write the truth. 

Newspapers are going the way of record players, rotary phones, and VHS tapes. While I miss those three, I won't miss the Buffalo News and it's status quo preserving agenda...

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step...

Buffalo News thinks we should all grow up

In today's Buffalo News, there was an editorial entitled Time to Stop. The News thinks we have gone too far and need to start praising all the elected officials as they rip us off and lie to our faces. It's easy for the News to do this, since they are in bed with most of the people in power. I couldn't find the link on their website, but here is an excerpt from the column...

Yes, it is true that we all have First Amendment rights to speak our minds, but rights come with responsibilities. This is not about censorship; it's about being grown up. How, exactly, we find our way back to a more civil brand of politics will be a challenge, but this tragedy offers an opportunity. Shame on us all if we are so comfortable in our wretchedness that we don't even try.

Excuse me while I wipe the tears out of my eyes. It's so nice that the Buffalo News thinks we've gone too far. This tragic shooting was the act of one deranged person. We don't even know what set him off. To me, a bigger tragedy is the News endorsing the same incumbents year in and year out. People get to to the point where they become sick of all the corruption. I also find the News' words "grow up" to be rather ironic. Isn't this the same paper that last week published a whole page worth of disparaging cartoons on Carl Paladino two months after the election? This was not news. It was simply done to embarrass Paladino because Stan Lipsey's feelings were hurt over a billboard characterizing him and the News as being spineless. I'm glad the News thinks we should grow up. It seems like a case of do as I say, not as I do.

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Don't ask, don't tell

If there was any doubt left in people's minds, Buffalo News columnist Donnie Esmonde ended it with the closing words of his latest column...

Gruber won his lawsuit, had it upheld on appeal and now — after failing to receive a requested apology —is suing the authority for $4 million in damages. You go, guy!

Congressman Massa called, Donniebrook. He needs his tickle feather back.

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Carl's back

Paladino previously used this same location to express his feelings about the Buffalo School Board and Phil Rumore.


The billboard on the 190 that once said Paladino for Governor now says, “Spineless Stan Lipsey and Buffalo News Threw WNY Under the Bus.” It looks like Carl's back to his old form. Lipsey fired back today in an article published in the News...

“It’s actually Carl Paladino who hurts the community, not The News,” Lipsey continued. “In fact, I’ve had public-and private-sector leaders across the country tell me that Paladino is the worst thing to happen to Buffalo’s image since the Blizzard of 1977.”

Actually, the worst thing to happen to Buffalo was when the Courier Express closed it's doors in 1982 and made Buffalo a one newspaper town. Their coverage of the gubernatorial race was extremely biased, in my opinion. The things they said about Paladino might have been true. However, they gave Cuomo a pass on the HUD debacle (of which he was in charge.) They completely ignored the fact that Cuomo's donors were a who's who of political corruptness in New York State. Just last week, Cuomo said he would "Look into pay raises for the members of the state legislature." It was barely mentioned in the News. They also attacked Paladino's personal life but never mentioned Cuomo's imperfections. From today's article...

Editor Margaret M. Sullivan said that reporters from The News accurately covered Paladino during the campaign, even if some stories proved unflattering.

“It’s the paper’s job to write those kinds of controversial stories,” she said. “And separately, on our editorial page, it’s the board’s job to make the endorsements that we believe will best serve our community.”

The Buffalo News editorial board is a joke. They are bought and paid for by those in power. Everyone knows this. Fortunately, so do most readers of the News, which makes their choices irrelevant. The News talks about change and then consistently endorses the same incumbents year in and year out. They have absolutely zero credibility when it comes to local politics. These people don't know what's going on in individual towns and villages. Their editorial board knows about as much about South Buffalo as I know about Clarence and East Amherst (where most of them hide).

Anyway, Carl Paladino has a great opportunity. What some people call hate, I see as a desire for change. I'd like to see Paladino bring together all the people in Western New York who are sick of the status quo into one organization. The status quo is not highly organized. In fact, they are still using the same playbook from 1975. An organized group, led by a charismatic guy like Paladino could create meaningful change in the region. This calls for a stupid and pathetic gesture to be done on somebody's part. And we're just the guys to do it.

Paladino billboard blasts News - City of Buffalo - The Buffalo News

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The News calling the kettle black

In an editorial today, the Buffalo News reminded newly elected State Senator Mark Grisanti to put his constituents ahead of Albany's special interests. They also mentioned my good friend Assemblyman Mark Schroeder...

Someone like Grisanti who overcame adversity, even after losing to Thompson in a 2008 primary, can help in that effort—as long as he can place his constituents before his benefactors. It can be done.

Assemblyman Mark Schroeder has proven to be the area exception, standing up early on to Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and paying a heavy price for doing so.

Schroeder may not have those go-along-to-get-along perks so many politicians enjoy but he has the attention of his constituents who clearly like his independent style.

While I agree with them on Schroeder, the News doesn't have an ounce of creditability otherwise. Year in and year out, they choose to endorse the very same incumbents they criticize in this editorial for not serving their constituents. Which is it guys? They criticize the incumbents for not having any guts, yet can't wait to endorse them each November.
Now get to work - Buffalo News editorials - The Buffalo News
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