Today’s guest media critic is Phil Rumore, the president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation. In a telephone interview on Channel 2’s late news Tuesday night, Rumore was highly critical of a lengthy CNN report on the cosmetic surgery rider in medical insurance contracts for Buffalo teachers. “It is really pathetic that CNN is going to rehash [...]
This is what I’m thinking after long holiday weekend: It was easy to laugh at how easy Channel 2 – the station that stands up for us – accepted a statement by Time Warner Cable Monday that there won’t be any rate hike resulting from the recent deal with MSG that brought [...]
I didn’t want to give up four hours of my life to celebrate Whitney Houston’s life. My goal Saturday was to ignore her funeral or homegoing and live my life. But the social media wouldn’t let me do it. However, the goodbye to Houston made me think about how our lives have changed since [...]
It’s time for The Interpreter to make sense of the Time Warner Cable deal with Madison Square Garden Network, which has the same chairman as the company that owns the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. Here are some quick thoughts: I awoke this morning in time to hear Channel 2 morning anchor Michael Wooten [...]
You may recall the headline of my Dec. 27 blog four days before MSG disappeared from Time Warner Cable in a contract dispute: “Sabre Fans Should Root for Knicks.” My point was that the dispute was all about the New York City market since it has about seven times as many TWC subscribers as the Western [...]
Channel 4’s new anchor Diana Fairbanks sent out a panoramic view of the station’s new high definition set this week to her social media followers. The view apparently hasn’t impressed Channel 4’s viewers so much during the first two weeks of the February sweeps. The new set (which got big play in a promotional Buffalo [...]
I’m sure that many people watching the plea of essayist Bill Flanagan on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” for the media to leave Whitney Houston alone after the eulogies stopped Sunday were moved by the idea. Flanagan probably would have received a standing ovation in many homes after he told viewers “let’s ignore the gossip [...]
This is what I’m thinking: The NBC musical drama “Smash” took a much bigger hit nationally than locally Monday when its second episode ran. “Smash” had an 8.1 rating on Channel 2 Monday, down only slightly from the 8.4 the premiere had locally on the Monday after the Super Bowl. Nationally, “Smash” lost a quarter [...]
This is what I’m thinking: If you ask me, the Public Service Commission should forget about trying to pass a rule or a law to solve future cable TV stalemates like the current one between Time Warner Cable and the owner of the Madison Square Garden Network and do something easier to solve that is more important [...]
Heaven help those who get what they want. That phrase comes to mind when thinking about the Western New Yorkers who want the FCC to end the policy that leads to blackouts of Bills games that aren’t sold out 72 hours in advance. I sympathize with the handicapped and the elderly with health problems that can’t [...]