I hesitated to weigh in on the dispute captured on video between Buffalo News education reporter Mary Pasciak and Elena Cala, the assistant to Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams. That’s because I know both of them. Pasciak is a former colleague at the News and remains a colleague since she also is an adjunct [...]
A couple of players on my tennis team were singing the praises of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” recently before asking me if I had seen it and if I knew whether there would be a second season. I hadn’t seen it at the time ( I watched the first episode via HBO On Demand the [...]
It’s time for a debate. Can anyone think of a dumber idea than the one Channel 2 had Monday night when it had local Tea Party activist Rus Thompson and FM radio co-host Tom Ragan debate the controversial decision by Republican State Sen. Mark Grisanti to vote for same-sex marriage on Friday? OK, maybe Channel [...]
Regardless of how one feels about his yes vote on same-sex marriage Friday night, State Sen. Mark Grisanti gave Western New Yorkers a reason to be proud. And the Republican has Time Warner Cable’s YNN to thank. The 24-hour cable news channel carried the speeches Friday by senators before the 33-29 vote in favor of same-sex marriage. To tell [...]
This is what I’m thinking: * First impressions on the latest editions to Channel 4’s Kiddie Corps. Bryan Shaw, the new meteorologist, received some prime exposure this week as the weather anchor on the evening newscasts. He’s telegenic (okay, that’s a critic’s synonym for handsome), personable and – most likely – very cheap as a [...]
If there are two more different standup comedians with different observational views of life than Louis C.K. (see right) and Jerry Seinfeld, I don’t know who they would be. This thought came to mind when watching the second season of their TV shows that premiere in the next few nights. The first episode of the [...]
Men and Women of a Certain Age appear to be changing their news watching habits. And this is good news in a way for Channel 4, the local news leader. According to the recently-arrived demographics for the May sweeps, more people ages 18-through-49 and 25-through-54 were watching Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock News on sister station [...]
If you watched any of the NBA Finals, you couldn’t miss the cool promos for the new ABC series premiering at 10 tonight, “Combat Hospital.” I was rooting for it as much as many NBA fans were rooting for LeBron James to fail before his Miami Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks in six games. [...]
Call it the Tale of the 2 Channel 2s. There was the Channel 2 News in the 1980s, which was so deep in third place that it was hard to imagine it ever getting close to the top of the news competition. And there is the Channel 2 News of the last decade, which now [...]
The new TNT alien series, “Falling Skies,” is mistitled. It should be called “Falling Expectations.” Or “Falling Asleep.” OK, that’s a little harsh. But with Steven Spielberg’s name attached as one of the executive producers, much was expected of Sunday’s two-hour premiere, which begins at 9 p.m. on the basic cable channel. Even more was [...]