Good Morning Buffalo: 6/30/11
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Shelly Schratz, Owner of Bing’s Restaurant:
Download audio file (063011schratz-2.mp3)
Jason Davidson, Davidson Restaurant Group:
Download audio file (063011davidson.mp3)
Don Alessi, Chairman of the Naval Park Board:
Download audio file (063011alessi.mp3)
Image via Wikipedia
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 professor at Buffalo State College, her alma mater.
I was reminded how little I really know her by hearing her pronounce her last name in the video and realizing I’ve said it wrong for years.
I don’t even know Cala as well as I know Pasciak. I haven’t seen her in years and when we last talked I believe she had a different last name.
The incident — available to see on The News website — also seemed to be a little too “inside baseball” to address.
Then Channel 2 anchor John Beard delivered a commentary – his “2 Cents” – that praised Pasciak’s determination in doing her job.
So I clicked on the Buffalo News video to see how Pasciak and Cala handled themselves when the reporter sought a comment from the superintendent after the Board of Education decided he could stay in his job for the final year of his contract as previously planned.
Pasciak arrived at Cala’s office with News videographer Joseph Popiolkowski. She introduced herself on the video before going into Cala’s office.
She wasn’t exactly being Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” fame (see above). She was pleasant as she explained she was seeking a comment.
Cala was not so pleasant. She was almost instantly annoyed. She put her hand on Joe Pops (that’s his News nickname) camera and complained about his videoing her. She laughingly suggested they “stormed in” the office.
Bad move. Beard used the shot of the hand on the camera in his piece.
It is never a good idea for someone in Cala’s position or any position to put a hand on a camera. (Remember the incident involving Congressional candidate Jack Davis?)
It also didn’t stop Joe Pops from continuing to record a textbook example of how not to do public relations.
Pasciak was calm throughout, determined to do her job.
Cala was condescending and had trouble justifying why Pasciak was being excluded from previous interviews.
In fairness, it was easier for Pasciak to be in control because she knew what she was going to do when she went into Cala’s office.
Cala was reacting to what some people might consider an ambush interview — a gentle ambush interview if there is such a thing. In the end, she ambushed herself.
She should have killed Pasciak with kindness. Better yet, she should have been honest with her rather than come up with a silly excuse and suggest the reporter would have gone straight to interview Williams rather than board members if it hadn’t been such “good news” that he was staying.
“You made your choice,” Cala told Pasciak, as if going to the board first eliminated the possibility of talking to Williams.
Cala should have told Pasciak the obvious – Williams hasn’t liked what she and others at the News have written and intentionally excluded her from previous interviews that day.
A strong public relations person also would have advised her boss that denying access to a media outlet is never a good idea because other reporters and anchors like Beard generally support each other when it comes to the public’s right to know.
After all, members of the media realize that they could be the next one excluded if they write or say something a source doesn’t like.
The whole scene was a reminder of how much newspapers are turning into TV.
In the old days before The News sent videographers on stories with reporters, Pasciak would have been treated as badly or worse and it would have resulted in one or two sentences in a story about being denied a comment. The printed word doesn’t speak as loudly as video in this case.
Video is the great equalizer for newspaper reporters, who can now show how rudely they are being treated in video blogs.
After decades of being told that they should not be part of the story, newspaper reporters can declare that rule null and void on certain occasions.
I’m not sure it is a good thing in the long-term or that it helps the public in any way. The treatment of reporters by public employees is the kind of thing that Beard and others think is more important than readers or viewers.
The one person who should look at the video and learn from it is Cala, who made “her choice” on how to treat Pasciak and might not have realized how inappropriately she behaved.
pergament@msn.com
Yeah, it looks like any other 1955 Chevy, but this one was rebuilt by GM with a modern powetrain, and recently delivered 23 mpg on a drive from Florida to Michigan. Read more about it here. — Jim Corbran, You Auto Know
Last year at this time the expectations for then rookie receiver Marcus Easley were high. He had come off a promising spring where he made a number of head-turning plays in the Bills passing game d...
The Democrats on the Erie County Legislature picked one map. Chris Collins doesn’t like it. He liked another map. The Democrats don’t like it. So Collins vetoed the Democrats’ map, and the veto override vote is likely to take place sometime today in the legislature.
Of course, what should have happened is we should have had not a bipartisan – but a nonpartisan – commission made up of academics and professionals to help draw new district lines. What we had was political appointees who had marching orders and acted as proxies for larger interests.
Assuming the veto cannot be overridden (there aren’t enough votes, regardless of whether any Democrats align themselves with the Republican minority), the legislature has a big problem. The thing is going to go to court regardless of what happens, but don’t forget that the voters overwhelmingly voted to reduce the legislature from 15 to 11. Now what happens with that?
No one really knows.
It’s my hope that the legislature is dissolved by default and we can go back to the drawing board and create something less horrible to serve the people. After all, 90% of their work is rubber-stamping and 10% seems to involve temper-tantrums.
I guess we’ll find out this afternoon.
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation’s implementation of “placemaking” is happening, guys! Instead of ground being broken on a big store, (pshaw! – everyone hates big stores like what AM&A’s used to be!), which would, in turn, attract other businesses, we have this:
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/55014985@N06/5853065482/” title=”Food stand 1 by eriecanalharbor, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2495/5853065482_72c4c0e25f.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Food stand 1″></a>
No, seriously, the food shack under the Skyway is almost done! Soon, you’ll be able to eat food near the water. (Bathrooms may come shortly, too, ZOMG! And CHAIRS, GUYS! CHAIRS!)
Naturally, I’m coming off as snarky because I’m disappointed in the pace of progress, which has mostly been hampered by protests and threatened litigation. Par for the course for any Buffalo development, really. I hope – truly hope – that the most recent plans that ECHDC has for Canal Side, involving interpretive canals, a public market space, and build-outs for other retail and food outlets will happen soon.
We’re close to ten years out from the first announcement of Bass Pro. We’re now supposed to get excited over a shack that would look at home at any little league field.
To make matters more bizarre, the ECHDC is so proud of this shack that it’s holding a naming contest for it.
Not everything needs to be crowdsourced, guys. How about you bid out the food operation, and let the food operator choose the name? Fred Kent and his PPS were paid six figures of taxpayer money for their Google Image Search and unscientific “power of ten” feel-good hocus-pocus. I seriously want our money back. After all, we could have built a second shack with it.
But we held our own contest on Twitter last week under the #ecshack (Erie Canal Shack) hashtag. Some of the entries:
For some reason, the Twitter search function isn’t working quite right, so a lot of my favorites aren’t available. Suffice it to say many of them involved “Shack” or “Shed”.
Disappointment breeds cynicism and sarcastic reaction – all three are growth industries in Buffalo.
6/30/2011
I have a voracious appetite for internet memes, video, podcasts, news and analysis, so each morning I’ll share several links that you can consume during your “morning grumpy”.
1. Last week, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation announced the completion of a new “restaurant” at the Inner Harbor. This is what it looks like:
What was supposed to be announced instead of this slanty-roofed Kone King replica was a restaurant at the Naval and Military Park. Well, that worked out as well as expected.
A waterfront agency was expected to approve $200,000 in April to pay for the buildout of a restaurant with an outdoor patio at Buffalo & Erie County Naval and Military Park.
Then the mayor, who said he had been left out of the loop, put the brakes on the project. Now, a refreshment stand on the wharf, but not the restaurant in the museum, will be opening Friday.
Essentially, Mayor Brown wanted the restaurant contract to be directed to former Erie County Legislator George Holt, who turned down the opportunity. Then, the usual palm greasing, crumb hoarding, and backroom haggling began and we end up with a half-assed lean-to which will serve up snacky cakes.
The ECHDC, always desperate to please the Mark Goldman and his 40 friends, decided to put a positive face on this “food shack” and asked for the community for input on what to name the “exciting new development”. Seriously, what exactly are we paying the people at this authority for at this point? Let’s just put Mark Goldman on contract, hire Fred Kent from PPS to do some more Google Image Searches for us and have Goldman’s millionaire brother Tony laugh at the very idea of investing his own money into Canalside. I’ve had enough.
Reminder, the waterfront would have looked something like this, right now, if we hadn’t completely restarted the process:
2. The bane of our political existence is two party rule and First Past The Post (FPTP) voting. It leads to electoral fusion, minimizing variance of opinion and a system which encourages consolidation of power. A solution would be something called Instant Run Off Voting. Learn about it here and watch a video that explains it in a very simple fashion.
3. An economist blogger has been writing an ongoing series about health care system “memes” that continue to permeate our debate, even when evidence shows them to be false. The introductory post in his series contains links to all entries. This particular entry is about the myth that “tort reform” would result in a significant reduction in national healthcare spending. I link to it today because I watched the documentary “Hot Coffee” last night and you should as well.
For better or for worse, whenever many are asked about how they would help control the cost of the health-care system, tort reform always seems to be one of the first things offered as a solution.
This image should sum up the argument against tort reform nicely.
4. The Economist created a useful interactive graph displaying state-level economic, political, and demographic data. The screenshot below shows GDP numbers by state:
Click here to read the full story
5. A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq–together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan–will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers. That doesn’t include the current Libyan conflict nor incursions into Yemen. In estimating the $4 trillion total, they did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan, state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65.
6. On to lighter fare, ever wonder how a hard drive works? It’s extraordinary technology.
7. Yeah, Grover Norquist is completely rational. Fast forward to 5:30 in the video. I know he was in a jokey environment and all, but Norquist truly believes it is never acceptable to ever raises taxes on anyone in America under any circumstances. This guy is at the heart of the current conservative movement.
8. What’s happening with the national debt ceiling? Here’s an explanation.
9. I’ll close with a life lesson from Leon. Rough language, but advice worth hearing. Curb Your Enthusiasm returns to HBO on July 10th.
A quick look at what's happening today in Western New York
The authentic 19th century replica docked Wednesday at Buffalo’s Central Wharf. Canalside is hosting the ship for the Independence Day weekend. It’s traveled to more than 200 ports throughout the world.
The $33 million blueprint is 4.3 percent larger than last year’s, based on a greater student enrollment. With a reported six percent decrease in state aid, Jamestown Community College is raising full time, in-state tuition by $90 per semester.
According to the U.S. District Court office, Paul Ceglia filed papers Tuesday that say attorney Jeffery Lake will handle the case against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
A man questioned in connection with the City Grill shooting, and who refused to testify during the trial, will spend more than three years behind bars on federal gun charges.
The New York Islanders traded negotiating rights to defenseman Christian Ehrhoff to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, a day after acquiring the rights from the Vancouver Canucks.
After the gay marriage bill failed in the State Senate in 2009, advocates re-grouped, launching a renewed effort that led to same sex marriage becoming legal in New York. YNN’S Erin Billups examines their winning strategy.
