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All About Jeff and Me

Posted on Oct. 31st, 2011 by

I’m going to do my imitation of esteemed Buffalo News critic Jeff Simon in this blog.
It is all about me.
After all, Jeff is a columnist who can spend the first 15 inches of a tribute (a very good tribute) about a legendary Buffalo entertainer writing about himself.
I was inspired to write about me after reading Jeff’s Friday column, “the dark days are getting darker for Channel 4 News” (a column, which by the way, I largely agreed with except for the stuff about me that deserved to be included).
When we worked together at the News, I always thought we had a good relationship and our styles complemented each other and benefitted The News.
I also liked him and even had him speak to one of my Buffalo State classes about film. Well, it was supposed to be about film. Many of my students later complained that Jeff actually talked about his favorite topic: Jeff.
Anyway, when we worked together, we couldn’t have more different styles and likes and dislikes. Jeff once told me after a discussion of our likes and dislikes “the trouble with you is you are too normal.”
Nobody has ever accused Simon of that. On Friday, the day of Simon’s Channel 4 column, I got a kick out of a Facebook comment made by someone who read a Simon review of a movie that day: “Simon gave it four stars but I’m going to see it anyway.”
Anyway, when we worked together, I basically did the reporting about local news and added my opinions about it and network TV shows.
Jeff wrote his opinions from the seat of his pants, unsullied by any facts or reporting. He also repeatedly criticized other critics and praised the few local personalities he talked to (do I have to tell you Irv Weinstein and Carol Jasen were two of them)?.
Which brings me back to me and my blog and some missing facts in Jeff’s column, which dealt with (among other things, there are always other things in a Simon column) meteorologist Mike Cejka’s move from “Wake Up” to the weekends.
In it, Jeff wrote: “I first heard of the Cejka affair a couple of weeks ago during one of the online chats with readers that some of us here are doing (and enjoying immensely – not to mention learning from).”
Apparently, Jeff is a lot better remembering what happened when he met Don Rickles 40 years ago than what happened a week ago. I sensed — rightly or wrongly — that he may have written ”a couple of weeks ago” to diminish my breaking the story..
I was so surprised by his memory failure that I did a little reporting to see when Jeff was educated about the Cejka move. I haven’t been among the 50 or so people who chat with Simon about all the shows he tells them he hasn’t seen. However, I have heard about a couple of cheap shots that he has thrown my way from some of his chatters (by the way, this isn’t coming from a disgruntled former News critic. I couldn’t be happier since leaving the paper to teach, blog and freelance).
So I went online to look at replays from the Oct. 13 and Oct. 20 chats he had. Since his timeline of two weeks ago would have meant he was talking about Oct. 13, I first looked at that chat review and saw that Cejka never came up. However, he did come up on Oct. 20, which also was the morning  that this blog broke the story about Cejka’s move. I have no idea if Rob from Randolph, who brought it up, read it here first or if he is a Channel 4 insider. (Rob, if you read this, please write me)
But there is a possibility that Rob was passing along information to Simon (who laughingly instantly speculated that Cejka might be happy about his schedule change) that he had just read in stilltalkintv. It has happened before during chats, notably when Buffalo News sports columnist Jerry Sullivan was asked about speculation that he might leave The News after it was reported in stilltalkintv.
Now it is a time-honored tradition in publishing to give credit where credit is due. A couple of national media sites – TV Spy and Media Bistro among them – credited my Cejka report when they wrote about it. When Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick signed his big deal last week, The News credited ESPN for the initial report. But Simon seems determined to not give credit where it is due and also to disguise how major TV news has been broken.
But back to me with a little self-promotion. I don’t think I need to tell you — my blog readers — that stilltalkintv has broken several major local TV stories since it began, including the departures of Lisa Flynn, Mylous Hairston, Michele McClintick and Lorey Schultz from Channel 4, the reduction of the schedule of Channel 2 sports director Ed Kilgore (which Simon also thinks Kilgore is happy about) and the Cejka story.
In almost every case, Jeff has praised or credited The Buffalo News reporter that followed up on my blog a few days to a week later. I really think The News ought to at least give me a finder’s fee on all these stories.
In the case of the Cejka story, reporter Jane Kwiatkowski wrote it a full week after it first appeared in stilltalkintv. Nontheless, Simon wrote: … “Jane Kwiatkowski’s reportage in Thursday’s News clearly conveyed that Channel 4’s treatment of the popular Cejka was unequivocally clumsy at best and downright rotten at worse.”
If I were Kwiatkowski, I’d be embarrassed by Simon’s remark and would have blamed him for being beaten on the story. If Simon had heard about it a couple of weeks ago as he wrote, then he should have showed an ounce of reporting instinct and either called his sources (not that Simon is big on calling or doing any reporting) or at least told Kwiatkowski about it so she would act like she is working for a daily instead of a weekly.
(By this time, do you realize I’m using a lot of parentheses in honor of Simon’s style).
But then again, I’ve been embarrassed by the way The News has treated television – the most powerful and influential medium – ever since I left the newspaper. Apparently, The News thinks it is less important than covering any form of music.
At the same time, The News treatment of TV has helped my blog, which is growing weekly by word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter, my radio and TV appearances and my new role as a contributor at Buffalo Spree.
I don’t have to tell my regular readers that they have a choice – they can read the latest happenings in local TV on stilltalkintv or wait a week or two until The News decides to write about it and disguise it as its own.
But I am going to remind you anyway. After all, this blog was all about me.
pergament@msn.com

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15 responses to "All About Jeff and Me"

  1. Dave says:
    October 31, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    You didn’t get the phrase “bee-stung lips” in your blog, Alan. I am very disappointed.

    Reply
  2. Tina says:
    October 31, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    I read Jeff’s article and did not put two and two together, never noticing the obvious diss to Alan. We all know where we got the news about Lisa, Mylous and Mike first and that is why some of us keep returning to this blog. It is a great blog that keeps those of us that care updated about the local news media. I might not agree with everything Alan says but who cares about that anyway.

    Reply
  3. Mark Scott says:
    October 31, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    I’m glad you’re writing about Jeff Simon, Alan, because it gives me an opportunity to opine about his columns. For years, I have quietly read Simon and bit my lip when it came to his irrational obsession with jazz on WBFO. For readers of this blog who are unaware, Simon has been harping about the poor quality of jazz on WBFO since the death of jazz host John Hunt 26 years ago. That’s right. Twenty-six years ago! John was a fine man who died way too young. He remains a jazz legend in this town. But Simon’s unfounded criticism of every single one of John’s successors has been way overblown and actually led one respected member of Buffalo’s jazz community to give up his radio gig.

    It wasn’t until an article over the summer when Simon wrote the outrageous statement that one of my esteemed colleagues at WBFO has done more to harm the arts in Buffalo than anyone in the media that I decided to begin speaking out, especially now that I no longer have a management position at WBFO.

    I have always found Jeff Simon’s columns to be unreadable. He goes off on tangents, and yes, it’s all about him. Even as a kid who was getting interested in radio, I remember not liking Simon when he was the News radio and TV critic because he didn’t cover the industry. I had to read about the latest developments from Jack Allen and then Jim Baker in the Courier. I don’t always agree with you, Alan, but your columns were always accessible to your readers.

    I understand a columnist has certain liberties that a reporter does not have. But it astounds me that News editors permit Simon to advance a personal agenda — his apparent love of jazz — in the pages of its newspaper. A column or two that he doesn’t like our jazz would have been appropriate. But more than a quarter of a century of such columns? It’s overkill. And I have to question whether the vast majority of News readers even care!

    The fact is there is not a market for jazz on the radio in a city the size of Buffalo. Fortunately, the signal of Toronto’s jazz station covers much of Buffalo. So, local jazz lovers can hear their music. And I’m one of them. I listen to Jazz FM 91.1 several times a week.

    Please know that WBFO is better serving the Buffalo radio audience through its presentation of quality NPR news programming than we would if our format was jazz. Plus, Simon and Buck Quigley at Artvoice spread a pure falsehood that many take as gospel — that WBFO duplicates programming available on WNED-AM. First of all, WBFO is a charter member of NPR and has been presenting “All Things Considered” since its first broadcast in May 1971. Yes, both stations are now airing “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” but that’s done in all markets where there are two or more public radio stations. Nothing unusual there. Does Simon really believe we should drop “Morning Edition” from our line-up in favor of jazz? You want to hear real outage from the WBFO audience? Plus, during the rest of the day, there is exactly one hour of duplication — ONE HOUR — at 10am with “On Point.” The rest of the time, each station is running separate shows — for example, “Fresh Air” on WBFO and “Hear and Now” on WNED at 12noon. But I guess a columnist like Simon does not let the facts get in the way when he’s trying to make a point.

    And you are right about one thing, Alan. You are breaking more news about Buffalo TV than the Buffalo News is. The News is consistently reporting on stories that I read here first. I know it must be frustrating that you’re not getting the credit for that. But all of us in the industry are well aware that the News is now following your lead. It’s not the other way around.

    Reply
    • J. Myrle Fuller says:
      October 31, 2011 at 8:44 pm

      Mark– you had me until you started justifying the duplication of services between WBFO and WNED. Radio spectrum is a rare commodity, and to have two stations in the same market broadcasting the same programming in both drive times is indefensible. That, and not only do you duplicate this, but you run reruns of your midday programming in the evenings. In other words, you’re duplicating almost all of your daytime programming. That is a tremendous, TREMENDOUS waste of a signal.

      I’m not demanding that WBFO go back to jazz during the evening (when I used to listen on an almost nightly basis), although being a Southern Tier listener unable to pick up Toronto signals, it’d be appreciated. Public radio is not supposed to be about pandering to an audience. That’s the realm of commercial programming. The role of public broadcasting is to make culturally significant programming available to the masses. Personally, I’d say moving the jazz to WNED-AM would be a smart move and a better use for the 970 signal than duplication. As for “everybody else does it,” you don’t need me to remind you of the old mother’s adage about jumping off a bridge.

      Reply
  4. Gman says:
    October 31, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    This is where I come to read the latest local TV happenings. The News is great for its Sunday coupons. They pay for the cost of the “rag.” Jeff who?????????

    Reply
  5. Gman says:
    October 31, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Those Stanton Optical commercials gotta go. Annoying & obnoxious . They’re not selling any glasses to me.

    Reply
  6. Paul says:
    October 31, 2011 at 6:29 pm

    Everybody seems to be in agreement on the central point of Simon’s column. Channel 4 is on a steady decline due to Lin following “the Granite Broadcasting Guide to Successful TV Station Management.”

    But the real punchline of the column is Simon, in the Buffalo News, slamming WIVB for gutting their news resources and casting aside veteran journalists while his paper is doing the EXACT same thing. You could build a hell of a newspaper with the reporters who’ve been through the paper’s buyout program. To then go on and claim credit for Alan’s story (which is the same as not giving credit), another veteran reporter from one of the News’ “buyouts,” is the cherry on top of the hypocrisy cupcake.

    Reply
  7. Dr. Richard says:
    November 1, 2011 at 2:25 am

    Alan,

    I agree with you on all your points – and agree with the writer on the “bee-sting” lips comment. I have thought for years that Jeff Simon, while an incredibly gifted writer, is the singular most sexist critic in Buffalo journalism history. That said, Alan, the first rule in journalism school is don’t make yourself part of the story. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t let the bastards get you down.

    Reply
  8. Sarah says:
    April 4, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Keep writing about Jeff Simon’s lack of research. I love to read his columns for the sheer comedy of his awful writing.

    Reply

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