I have been saying for years...two young people get shot dead on the East Side...it gets minimal news TV & Print coverage. A white kid from Clarence gets in a car wreak and dies...the Buffalo News will do a huge story on that kid. It's absolutely not fair and I can't believe people don't point that out more.

I will say one thing regarding The Why Guy...he does stories that are pitched to him by marketing people (I've worked with him many times - and he's a good guy). You would think that he would broaden his horizons a little, but with so many segments to produce each day, I bet you he goes with what stories have been pitched.

Eric, Thank you for sharing your opinions in this rant. We all see the world through our own lenses and filters that shape our perceptions. Your perception is that all news about the suburbs involves rich kids is no less misguided than someone who sees only the criminal activity in the city. There are a lot of great things happening in the city, and although I believe that the local media could do a much better job of highlighting them, they are covered in most of the media outlets. I do watch the channel 2 and channel 4 news in the mornings, and I believe that they try to offer a balance of perspectives in their human interest stories. It is important to differentiate their reporting on 'news', 'sports', 'weather' and 'human interest'. I had the opportunity to meet Chesley O'Neal (I may have spelled that incorrectly) at a fund raiser a couple of months ago and asked him why he doesn't showcase more downtown activities on his morning segments from SPOT coffee, he told me that he brings on everyone who wants to come on the show. Involvement is a two-way street, I applaud your efforts to paint a better picture of the city from the African-American perspective, and I hope it brings in greater involvement in development and progress from that community.

I am glad to see that there will be a point person for bringing in news from the minority community. Sometime it is hard to even know where to begin because there is such a lifestyle and social divide along main street that unless you have good friends or live there, it is a tale of two cities.

I also much agree with the point about the major news outlets. There coverage of one story versus the other is the main reason I found BRO to begin with and like their coverage of positive city happenings. It isn't always just a minority versus white thing but often the line falls at the city line no matter what race is involved. Good news is almost exclusively about those events and places popular the larger regional population. Shea's, Allentown Art Festival or the Taste of Buffalo. They fill the rest of the time by talking about violence and race.

Remember the example of the west side deli that got robbed a couple months back. I attempted to watch every news station trying to see how they covered it. They all just said stuff like, "more violence on the city's west side." A shop owner shoots a would be criminal. Totally leaving out the fact of where the criminal actually came from (North Tonawanda). As soon as it is a city person doing something wrong the story changes.. "An east side man was accused of robbing.."

News is news, blood sells, but there really does need to be a little bit more consistency on how it is reported. You shouldn't arbitrarily leave out socio political information because it might hurt someones feels or change the perception of some towns / villages. No one is trying to say there isn't crime in the city we can pull out the stats and end that case real quick but the way the story is told is very divisive and perpetuates many negative emotions.

Although I agree with the concerns expressed here, is a targeted attack labeling one news reporter appropriate on this site? And does this particular BRO correspondent get to use language like "take your suburban ass to the East side???" Is that bringing us together? And nice job, BRO, with the disclaimer making sure to note that you're not one of THOSE bad news outlets!

I think this issue is important and worth exploring, but in a more responsible way.

I stopped watching TV news a long time ago. The stories that this article talks about, crime and "lifestyle" both, are not really helpful, so I don't pay attention to either one. While I would like them to change, I don't expect them to change.

Instead, I will seek out those stories on my own, create them when I can, and share them with anyone who will listen.

I agree with the larger sentiment behind it, but this was an odd post. I mean, segregation is an important topic to talk about and work on, but I don't see what it has to do with the Why Guy.

Critt-So no dissenting views? And who exactly is the "we" that will revitalize our home? Some of your points are a bit contradictory.

^^^racist^^^

Josh,

Please don't give South Buffalo a bad name.

your son,

Colin

And another thing -- who's the guy in the pirate shirt?

The sad truth is that realist and racist are often the same in Buffalo... I personally had more than a few relatives that considered themselves realists that after some time away from them and growing personally I look back upon as fairly racist. Far from bigots or extreme but subtly affected by race to their core perception of people and events. There is a lot of history on both sides of the fence that need some good hashing, who knows maybe even a good ole yelling match followed up with a beer to relieve stress.

The point I think this article hints at, is that there is little to no dialogue across 'main street' or 'city line' and 40 years of not talking has created a lot of misconceptions from all parties. If nothing happened but a little rational discourse about what people feel is or isn't wrong with the 'system' then it would be a win for all sides.

1. Josh's post appeared to blame non-whites for the poverty in certain areas of the city, which is wrong for all sorts of reasons. But it's also racist, in that it creates racial hierarchies and essentializes entire groups of people into neat little categories.

2. Racism is a problem. It isn't "realism," "common sense," or anything like it. One of the most basic things we can do to fight racism is to call it when we see it. If we don't, and we let it pass, it builds up until some sad people actually think it's true.

3. "Political correctness" is a term that stupid people use to hide behind when someone challenges their ignorance.

4. I have a perfect right to "bust out" any word I please. Just try and stop me, racist.

What's surprising about stories about Germans, Poles and Irish? They, along with Italians, are the largest ethnic groups in the area. In fact, German is the largest ethnic group in the USA (Irish second).

As for BR being a place where local politicians could mix, well, I have noted the strange and complete absence of local politicians on this site or any other site. I have my theories.

BR should be exactly what its owners want it to be. That’s capitalism.

Is that this dude's "myspace" picture? How do you determine what reader submissions to post on this site? Did you just pick a rant out of a hat and post it?

The race situation in Buffalo is one of the reasons why a little piece of my desire to move back dies each day.

I feel the need to defend BRO a little bit here. Could and should they do more to get stories about what happens in all segments of Buffalo sure. I agree. It would be nice to find out what is happening all over. Just a couple days ago there was an article about the BBQ place on Fox Street. A while ago people complained about South Buffalo after which came a slew of articles that could have made people think it was South Buffalo Rising.

Are people in Kaisertown, Lovejoy, Riverside, Black Rock yelling over a lack of proper representation on BRO. I don't think so and they certainly aren't linking it to a race thing. Maybe the articles happen as things happen and I don't think anyone could argue with the fact that there is more development and change happening in Elmwood / Hertel than most of the city proper combined.

If there is something going on in your neighborhood why don't you email it to BRO. I am sure they would be happy to explore it. I sent something to them about a happenings on Jefferson. Without speaking up and telling your stories to someplace (like BRO or the TV news) how do you think they would get reported. The truth about BRO over the other news outlets is they would probably be more willing to listen and report on it..

Hence this article.

About time someone noticed and said something about this, and THANK YOU BR for posting this too. I never was a fan of WGRZ either, mostly because it bored the hell out of me everytime, just the way they present the news was always dull. But it's so true, they go to extreme for the newsless and same old status quo. If your representing the BUFFALO NEWS, then present MORE of it.

Also a part of the disproportionate stories could come from the (forgive me for a little jargon) digital divide. There is a divide between those who can afford both the money and time to blog and type out stories to be submitted online. Someone working two jobs striving to pay rent doesn't have time to sift through the internet to find and blog on BRO. So unfortunately maybe BRO is stuck in a sort of crux where they rely on people giving them leads but those giving them leads rely on internet access. Unfortunately not everyone can afford a computer with broadband (a necessity to us BRO).

use*

"Blacks were treated kindly by northern cities whose abolition-minded residents sympathized with them over the injustices of slavery and who helped many of them escape their servitude through the Underground Railroad. Blacks found northern cities to be refuges from Jim Crow laws early on and were eager to join the ranks of the factory workers to begin new lives. . . . To this day, the most segregated cities in america are in the Midwest, once a bastion of Lincoln Republicans that welcomed Blacks."

I have to disagree. The North was quite racist in its own way. There were draft riots when Lincoln changed the goal of the Civil War from union to anti-slavery. The North had Black Codes to match the South's Jim Crow.

Mark Goldman's book, City on the Lake: The Challenge of Change in Buffalo, New York, is about official racial discrimination against blacks in the 20th century. About Civil War-era Buffalo, he writes:

"Like most Americans in the middle of the nineteenth century, Buffalonians were distinctly racist, and while many may well have abhorred slavery (no working man in his right mind would want to compete with slave labor), the overwhelming majority had no desire to live among blacks. This was true of the reform-minded WASP community who supported colonization of America’s blacks in Africa as well as for the German and Irish immigrant community who for racial as well as economic reasons wasted little love on the black race." [p. 90]

Goldman quotes from a German-language newspaper: "’We want no negroes in the northern states because we anticipate nothing good from the mixing of the black and white races. We want the region of Kansas to be reserved for honest white workers.’" [p. 90] Goldman continues:

"race relations in the city. . . were further poisoned during the Civil War years by the imposition of a federal draft * * * were the Irish really expected to offer their lives to free people who offered them thanks by breaking their strikes?" [pp. 92-93] There was "a lack of enthusiasm for the Union effort, particularly following the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. . . " [p. 122]

1. RD666 has it right. The reason these neighborhods went downhill has everything to do with economics, not with the pigmentation of the people livign there.

2. Josh's original post made an explicit point of contrasting the racial/ethnic makeup of neighborhods on the east and west sides, and how changes in those demographics tracked with changes in the quality of those neighborhoods.

3. Josh's implied argument confises correlation and causation. Just because non-whites became predominant in certain areas as they were in decline doesn't mean that non-whites were responsible for that decline. This is especiialy true when you cionsider that this was all hapening in the midst of several decades of city-wide economic carnage.

4. Race is a real problem in Buffalo. Almost noone is willing to address it in a way that goes beyond flippant responses about "moving past it" or how we've "learned from the past."

Consider the recent praise on BR of the Forgotten Buffalo tours and Web site. In reality, it's more like "Forgotten Polonia".

The OP is absolutely correct; for decades, celebration and recognition of ethnicity and diversity in Buffalo is mostly limited to the "Big Three" ethnic groups; Polish, Italian and Irish. No disrespect, but three ethnic groups does not equal "diverse". While the Big Three have helped to shape Buffalo's unique "old school" culture, the lack of new blood is a major factor in its stagnation.

I've always believed that Buffalo's ethnic insularity and limited diversity is something that is a liability. To those not in the Big Three, living in the Buffalo area can feel like you're on the outside looking in; that area residents belong to a club that you can never, ever join. I wonder if people who aren't in the Big Three are more likely to leave the area than those who are Polish, Italian and Irish?

As I said, the Big One is the Germans, so we in the "big three" are the ones who should feel left out.

Not mentioned here explicitly yet, but there implicitly is the myth of Buffalo as "one of the most" segregated or racist cities. Total bull.

Human nature is pretty much the same all over. Buffalo's housing patterns are pretty much the same as similar-sized cities in the Northeast with similar immigration histories. Comparing us to the South and the West is absurd on its face.

Our alleged greater racism is the useful scapegoat for the true cause of Buffalo's decline: big government, the failure of all big government policies tried in the last 50-60 years. People around here will twist logic and fact to obscure the obvious cause of our decline: excessive consumption of capital by the political class.

A followup: there's the saying that in Buffalo, it doesn't matter if you're Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or an atheist. You'll still grow up Catholic.

I wonder if the OP's concerns can be extended to religion. Conservative Roman Catholicism is the modal religion of the Buffalo region -- the second most Catholic metropolitan area in the US -- and all too often, it's assumed that EVERYBODY is Catholic. Minor Diocese news makes the front page of the Buffalo News, and often it's the headline article. People decry the closing of Catholic churches, but there is no such mourning for equally prominent Protestant congregations. Many beautiful churches shuttered their doors or were passed on to new congregations as racial transition changed the face of the Kensington neighborhood in the 1990s, but only St. Gerard and St. James made the news.

The Buffalo area has some 25,000 Jews -- 40,000 when college is in session -- but they're treated as something of an odd curiosity, only worthy of recognition for a few minutes during Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah. As far as the growing Muslim community, well ... media coverage seems limited to the Lackawanna Six and problem delis. Buddhists, Hindus, and others: nonexistent in the eyes of many Buffalonians.

Surprisingly, the most diverse part of the region when it comes to religion is ... Amherst. The "Amherst is all upper income WASPS" meme hasn't been true since the 1970s, when a good number of Buffalo's Jews made the move from North Buffalo and Tonawanda to the 14221/14226 area, and international faculty members of the then-rapidly growing UB made their home in the town.

Jim, Buffalo's German-American community is very large, but it doesn't have the visibility of the Big Three. Predominantly German neighborhoods in the closer-in sections of the East Side were displaced by the outmigration of African-Americans from the Lower East Side after World War II, while outlying German neighborhoods (Kensington, East End/Delavan-Bailey, Schiller Park) were diluted with a rush of first-time homebuyers of various ethnicities from the 1950s through the 1980s. The once rural towns of Amherst and Cheektowaga list their German flavor with post-war suburbanization.

Unlike the displacement of other ethnic communities (Italians from the West Side to North Buffalo and Tonawanda, Poles from the East Side to Cheektowaga/Sloan/Depew, Jews from Hamlin Park to North Buffalo and Tonawanda, and later Amherst/Williamsville), German communities didn't regroup after they were displaced. The towns in Niagara County north of North Tonawanda still have something of a German flavor; for example, the greatest concentration of Missouri Synod Lutheran churches in the region can be found in Cambria, Wilson and the surrounding area.

Also, other elements of Buffalo's German culture were lost after WWII; for example, the decline of Buffalo's once-mighty brewing industry. German food never made its way into Buffalo's collective culture in the same way that Italian food and Polish-rooted "Buffalo style cuisine" did.

Okay, so I forgot about beef on weck. :)

Agreed, I always think, where are those Germans hiding? But then, I'm married to one! (part-German anyway) I used to think Poles were largest group here but then I looked it up.

Well, first of all, thanks to your and your wife for watching Daybreak, even though you lump us in with " public organizations that perpetuate segregation need to be exposed and held accountable".

While I do plead guilty to doing segments commemorating Irish, German, and Polish holidays, I STRONGLY disagree with your contention that other ethnicities, and their celebrations, are ignored.

I can provide specific examples of shows I've done, and people I've interviewed, that celebrate Western New York's unique diversity. Hispanic? check. Middle Eastern? check. African-American? check. Asian? check.

Your very simple "solution", putting " the feel-good, celebratory stories on rotation" is utterly impractical. Are you suggesting I do as many shows on Samoan Western New Yorkers as I do on Italians? I'm obliged to do a show with a Lebanese Western New Yorker, because I did two "Polish" shows last month?

Yes, I cover ethnic events and will continue too (Hellenic Festival around the corner). Regarding my interviewees, I can honestly tell you that decisions will NEVER be made whether or not to talk to someone by their last name or the color of their skin.

One suggestion: since most of my ideas come from viewers, I look forward to YOUR suggestions for stories. Any specific people, places, or events that you feel deserve coverage?

Thanks,

Kevin O'Neill

On substance, Eric seems correct and O'Neill seems miseading. The WGRZ web site's "Celebrate WNY" page lists the most recent 30 reports from O'Neill and his team. Link is here - see left column of that page

It doesn't look to me that any of those most recent 30 are about an African American or Hispanic theme. 29 of those 30 reports look like they're centered on Caucasian individuals, and one is about a Native American theme.

Disclaimer - I browsed the list very quick, so it's possible I didn't notice something.

On significance, does this matter? To me it doesn't matter much because I find that type of reporting to be useless nonsense anyhow. I can't imagine watching it or caring what they focus on. But for those who care about what WGRZ covers in its happy talk reports, Eric's premise looks to have basis in fact.

Even though I disagree with his opinions in this article (but agree with his facts), I do think it will be smart of BR to add Eric as a regular contributor.

Eric has offered to be the source of African-American representation for BRO. We thank Eric for stepping up.

Some different perspectives outside of the usual Elmwood-downtown-centric, Tielmanist, and boosterist mind sets will be a positive change, so why not start with Eric?

He should be asked to blog here not just as "the source of African-American representation" but on whatever topics he wants. ToughintheStreets has suggested a lot of ideas recently - why not have Eric look over those and blog here about any that interest him? Just a thought. Usually I don't make suggestions but for what it's worth I'll agree with what some others said recently that the content here would benefit from widening the focus a bit and being less repetitive.

Ok Critt, here I go...

Nash House, did it. Colored Musicians Club, did it. Underground Railroad, did it several times, including Michigan Street Church and Murphy's Orchard. (don't forget awesome exhibit realted to Railroad at Castellani Museum in Niagara County) IMAGE program at Bennett, never heard of it, will pursue. 10,000 Villages, did it. African-American Cultural Center, did it. Latino Fest, did it. Caribana, did it.

Don't forget Gigi's, the Univer"soul" Circus at MLK, Phoenix windows in Buffalo (founded by African-American), True Bethel Baptist Church, Juneteenth Festival, Buffalo Inner City Ballet, local African Dance troop, McKinley High School building a House, Hutch Tech for "Pi Day", etc...

I Love the Buen Amigo idea, I will set up a show in June, you can count on it. I will call Bennett High School as well.

As for Atwater Louse, what exactly is a "Caucasian themed" show? I'm guessing you included my reports from Niagara-Wheatfield High School, Amherst Middle School, Genesee County BOCES, and U.B. as "Caucasian" shows. That's a real shame, because if you actually WATCH the reports (there is a video link), you will plainly see that there are "Non-Caucasians" in each segment.

My segments are like Western New York, wonderfully integrated!

ONeill - To answer your question, I was using criteria Eric stated in his article above:

"Rarely are the feel-good stories generated out of WGRZ about the Asian, Hispanic, Arab or Black communities."

and considering anything not "about" those communities to be Caucasian-themed. You're right, my choice of words wasn't great wasn't great. Better would've been "non-minority-themed".

His complaint is the relative amount is not enough, as he sees it. He wrote "Rarely", although then later in his 13:30 comment later he said "The FACT is...there is NO COVERAGE".

He was wrong to claim "no coverage", but his use of "rarely" in his article sounds reasonable, doesn't it? None of the stories on your station's Celebrate WNY web page (most recent 30), look to be "about" the Asian, Hispanic, Arab or Black communities. Whether that's important is another matter. It wouldn't matter to me if all your feel-good reports are about Eskimos. No offense, I'm just not a fan of those reports. My point was just his complaint seems based on truth if those 30 are the examples one looks at.

BP, you're right. I certainly don't want to downplay the existence of racism, but the race card is played far too often nowadays; so much so it can almost sound like crying wolf.

Still, when it comes what defines Buffalo's collective culture by many, the Big Three seem to be given preferential treatment. We're bombarded with weepy nostalgia for Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s, and that damn Sattlers jingle that usually goes along with such recollections, but hear nothing about the vitality of Jefferson Avenue before the riots of the late 1960s. Forgotten Buffalo, although an impressive compendium of "old Buffalo" culture, leaves an out-of-town visitor thinking that the area is dominated by just one ethnic group.

As for television news in Buffalo, thank God it is what it is. Come to Cleveland, and after watching a parade of child molesters, gotcha-style investigative journalism, true fluff stories, and "a common item in your bathroom may be slowly killing your pets; story at 11" blurbs, you'll be begging for feelgood stories about the SPCA, handicapped children, and senior citizens in Depew.

Here's the thing, ONiell, no need to over-complicate this. There's many more potential story topics and events than you can possibly cover, and you do 5 stories a week right?

So if your staff just reads a few community newspapers and plans things out so on average you do one every week that's about a black or Hispanic or "other" community event or org. Then any time somebody looks at any set of 30 there'd be about six instead of none (or one if we count the Native American story).

Viewers who care about this won't feel slighted, the same quality of reports as always goes on the air, and not much extra work for you. Just a little easy reading and planning. Problem solved, easy as that.

I think you should be happy that anyone cares enough to complain.

manga and critt make important points. I think a lot of time minorities feel they should get more time they by the numbers they deserve. There are hundreds of thousands more whites than minority probably means there are many more stories from that segment than any other. That's not racist, but where the media does and race does come into play is the tone that many stories are published and how they word certain things. I don't know kevin's show. Never saw it but when i do watch the coverage and can hear difference, the one sidedness that sometimes comes out. I think it is ridiculous that the city comes across as nothing more than a war zone still most days. I get it, there are stabbings murders and the like but it bothers me when they plaster the ones from the city on TV but if you dig through the fine print or find the stats some of the same shit happens all over. Somehow it isn't as news worthy as showing another black guy from the east side. I hear the whispers of office coworkers who think I am obviously dodging bullets on my way home on the train every day. I mean who in the right mind would expose themselves to 'those people." Makes my skin crawl when they say stuff like that around me because they make the assumption I must feel the same way cause I am white.

As someone who grew up on the East Side and still has German relatives in the Fruit Belt not everyone ran away. This is our city and as NPR said today about race relations, not talking to one another is the problem. One thing I feel everyone can understand is a good cold pint at some healthy dialogue. I could only WISH that these channels would be opened.

...by the way... "Herban Roots" ... really... I found that rather offensive and certainly not a good way to start an open dialogue about race.

I don't think the people who are taking a chance and really trying to infuse some spirit and life into a neighborhood that most have long written off should be attacked in such a way because many of them are white. If you want to sling racial names around you shouldn't aim at those trying to help the communities you are fighting for. We have all gotten our fair share of names yelled at us over the years (maybe it's just me) and it is particularly disheartening when you are there trying to help people.

PS I am not a member of urban roots of affiliated in any way.

Buffalo is no more or less racist than many other American cities.

Buffalo was a world class industrial power in 1900. Were we less racist then? Buffalo started to decline around 1960. Did we get more racist then?

Racism is a scapegoat for our problems favored by liberals. Big government liberalism is the problem. However, too many people are making too much money from liberal policies that they can't possibly admit the truth. So they defame their city with nonsense about how we are the "most segregated city." I refuted that lie here.

http://blog.freeny.org/?p=1988

Move on.

Where and what the hell does liberalism have to do with anything! Sounds like someone is trying to find another more politically correct scapegoat.

"Colin, when you call people 'racist' as loosely as you do, you inflate resentment, narrow focus, and ultimately censor those who may have a legitimate feeling of frustration."

1. There was nothign loose about my use of the word. The original post I was referring to spoke about different races/ethnicities as if they were monliths with immutable qualities, and implied that some of these groups were better than others. That's racism.

2. Why is it that someone who challenges racism is accused of "inflating resentment," but the person who makes the racist comment isn't? Hmmm . . .

3. I have no ability to censor anyone. People remain perfectly free to say anything they want, no matter what I think. However, their actions aren't without consequences. If someone says some racist nonsense in a public forum, I'm gonna call them on it.

4. If someone has a "legitimate feeling of frustration," I'm sure that they can express it without reducing an individual to the imagined qualities of his or her race, or creating racial hierarchies.

Colin I agree totally.. just remember it works both ways. That is the part that drives the resentment. I can't say a whole lot of words for fear of retaliation or loosing my job like certain mispoken people in recent times. But does that go both ways? Often someone trying to call out blacks for saying equally derogatory statements is labeled a racist.

Am I lost? Is this Speakup where argument is met by anonymous personal insult?

As for not confronting racism, not only have I done so extensively elsewhere, but I did so on this very thread so please read the thread. Just one example. I have written extensively about the negative impact of the war on drugs (a failed liberal program BTW) on the black community. Here's a more recent example. http://blog.freeny.org/?p=3166

The tragic and worsening state of the east and west side is because the" Why guy" doesn't do enough quirky stories on them. Riiiiight......... keep wasting your time getting all worked up into the tizzy about unimportant things. Gotta love the enlightened liberals who blame racism for everything but never do the self-reflection required to evaluate the effects of their own policies on the communities they supposedly want to help.

Can always count on Pundit to talk about everything but the issues. I didn’t mention Ron Paul or libertarians but to talk about race in Buffalo without talking about the political regime in Buffalo for the last 60-75 years--corporate state liberalism, would be kind of silly.

This is my first post on this web site and unfortunately I am in a weird mood.

This story was written by one of my closest freinds ... and I have discussed this subject with Eric in person many many times.

Tha is why I kind of smirked when I read the title, and to make a joke about the subject it ain't the right thing to do but sometimes you gotta just let it rip ... it's not like my opinion has any validity on this subject ...

cuz I haven't seen the Channel 2 news or any other local news since like the 90's. (does anyone remember Alison Rosati from like 10-15 years ago? She was a fox! I remember those fuzzy sweaters!)

But after reading the title of the thread I thought I would add a bunch of "T-I-O-N" words with a bunch of question marks, ala Don King, to make light of a serious issue ... sorry don't take it too seriously.

Anyway this is what Don King would would say to this article ...

"Perperuation fuels your irritation?

Concentration is on segregation?

Media attraction to the elderly cacasion? It be a celebration of selection! A white affection and no detection, attention or intention of stories of black detention?

It's an underestimation of the Buffalo Rising nation!!!"

So, toughinthestreets, you agree that ending the federal war on drugs is a step in the right direction? Great! We're getting on the same page! We should just focus on the issues and not waste time on the foolish political spectrum of right vs left. Now, let's talk about moving the control of the urban communities away from bureacrats in Albany and Washington and back to the people who actually live there. I would think that anyone who has been paying attention for the last 4 decades can clearly see that the big government attempts at micro-managing the daily lives of the urban community have been miserable failures.

Atwater Louse,

It's evident that you either don't watch our show, or your memory erases every morning, like that movie. Remember the seven shows I did in a row featuring great inner-city kids? Each Boys and Girls Club in the city nominates a young man or woman for "Youth of the Year". I went to SEVEN different Buffalo Boys and Girls Clubs and did a report on each nominee (all but one were minorities). Each kid got their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

This was last month. 7 shows. O.K.?

By the way, your previous insinuation that a show from a university, an art gallery, or an historical museum is a "Caucasian" show is insulting to minorities everywhere. Is any show from an institute of learning or culture only interesting or relevant to whites? I whole-heartedly disagree. Similarly, a future show that I do with or about an exceptional WNY person of color is reason for all of us, regardless of ethnicity, to be proud of our area.

So, toughinthestreets, you endorse the federal war on drugs then? James Ostrowski wrote a famous paper on the war on drugs so he can fill you in on the history if you'd like to know. I'm a forward-looking guy and I'd like to see where you stand on the issue or if you even have a stance.

ONeill - Rarely doesn't mean never.

I'm saying Eric's original point in his article looks correct, based on what YOU have currently shown on YOUR wgrz.com "Celebrate WNY" web page - which lists your most recent 30 stories.

Those 30 stories are 6 weeks worth, right?

The link is right here: click here and see left hand column of this page. Of those 30 stories listed on YOUR weg page as of yesterday, none (zero) fit criteria Eric described in his initial complaint (2nd sentence of his 2nd paragraph):

Rarely are the feel-good stories generated out of WGRZ about the Asian, Hispanic, Arab or Black communities.

If in 30 consectutive stories, six weeks, there's not even one single example of what he says he'd like to see you cover, then doesn't that meet a reasonable definition of "rarely" as Eric's article used it?

Obviously people have differing opinions here about how important Eric's complaint it is. I won't cloud the issue by getting into that now. But it looks like what Eric's sentence I quoted here is a fair description.

Rarely doesn't mean never. Your defintion of rarely might differ from Eric's, but having none in the past 30 sounds "rare" to me.

That's all. This really isn't complicated. Since there's an abundance of potential story topics anyhow, you might want to consider doing one per week, or at least a few per month every month, of what Eric is requesting. Or maybe not - it's up to you, as it should be.

Was there actually an article on this site about a US rice "shortage"? I guess I missed it, but the fearmongers on the national news shows bought into it as well, so ECB is in good company with Fox News, MSNBC, et al.

Also, limiting purchasers to four 50 pound bags of rice per visit at Sam's Club, or Costco or wherever the hell is not really a "ripple" that reflects a wider global food shortage.

Over 150 comments about whether or not a goofy features reporter like Kevin O'Neill properly covers minorities is pretty excellent. I don't much care for his style, but the guy covers the whole region and has highlighted all facets of the community in his near decade on the air at two channels.

If the issue is about the general tone of broadcast news reports, get over it. People like stories about crime and fires; it's the nature of television news in every market in the country. News broadcasts are pretty much the same wherever you go...top stories (crime, political scandal, fire), followed by in-depth feature report on household dangers, followed by weather with Flip Stormcruncher, Sports with Champ Jocksniffer, and a closing featurette about a student or a squirrel who can water-ski.

The ultimate irony of this article being posted on a site which could be clearly mistaken with the now infamous pop culture blog "Stuff White People Like" is even more excellent. I've always enjoyed the condescending tone of the writers here when they cover stories out of their own neighborhood..."Awww, look Elena! Those poor people on the east side like architecture too!" or "Hey, the white people at the Terminal, Market, and BFA are trying to emulate the EVA, isn't that just so super?!?".

That might just be my bias as I don't really like the editorial tenor of this site and visit but once a month or so, but hey, I get to have an opinion too.

actually norwood, I just checked and in the past 12 months, we've received 22,413 comments on our various blogs. Thanks for asking!

Geek - BR and WNYM each seem to have a good percent of their comments on not-too-important matters - Mike Hudson pro and con, wehther or not Hank is a jerk, miscellaneous Ron Paul, etc. The 150 in this thred, however, wandered into discussions beyond O'Neill, so I wouldn't say all 150 are "about whether or not a goofy features reporter... ".

I agree that BR's usual editorial tenor is pretty bad in the ways your comment described. No argument there. That BR looks on casual glance apparently(?) to be leading the pack by a wide margin in drawing paticipation might indicate how weak the Buffalo area blogosphere is. --shrug--

Each site serves a different demographic. We're more blog-centric whereas BR is trapped in a weird "we're not a blog, but we're also not a real news outlet" state. Are the discussions that happen on my site anymore important than what happens here? I don't know, nor do I really care. It's all pretty subjective.

What this site does well is attract a loyal readership from a narrow area of the city. I stop in here once in a while and I find the discussions to be silly and pointless and represent the small minded ninnies who have held Buffalo back with their obsession over minutiae for decades. Do the people here find my site to be filled with pointless invective about politics, big picture economic issues, regional issues, and find it to represent the small minded ninnies who have held Buffalo back for decades with their obsession about government being an obstacle to growth? Probably.

Which is why I said it's my opinion that I dislike the tenor of this site. I find Elena to be exceedingly condescending and out of touch with reality and Newell to be a nice guy with weird opinions. They probably think of me as a fat loudmouth with a bad attitude, I really don't care and they shouldn't care what I think of them either. In the end, 90% of people in the region have probably never heard of either site and couldn't care less one way or another.

BG - I bet more than 90% never heard of either. The Nielsen report last year if I recall said only 2% of all metro Buffalo adults read any blog, so even if half of those ever heard of either WNYM or BR it would be just 1%. And probably it's less than half.

Anyhow yeah, I agree with most of that except a couple things:

BR is an opinion blog, no matter what they call themselves.

The commenters here on the whole aren't in that single mind set as you describe. I'd say about a third or so could fairly be described that way most of the time. Varies per day and topic, of course.

150+ posts (abt 90% of which have come from the same 10 people). This is a very provocative topic so of course it was bound to get a lot of back & forth "discussions."

And, "bitch slap" from an editor? I'd say that's slightly unprofessional, no surprise that you don't post more often.

How classy to denigrate another mid-sized U.S. city for no reason, and for a blog that brags about having out of town readers to then attack that a negative when convenient.

for all I know you're a bored night clerk at a Motel 6 in Omaha, Nebraska with a sociology degree tacked to the wall

Looking down one's nose at clerk jobs is also interesting for a blog that often promotes the idea of tourism as an economic strategy.

Tubby is throwing flames again...

Hey critt,

No need to wait, the school districts being represented this week are East Aurora, Lancaster, city of Tonawanda, and Orchard Park.

Again, I spread my self out geographically, not by race. None of these districts were represented last time I did a week of great classes. During our last "sweeps week", a Buffalo city school was featured. I've includud a link.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=55157

I included that Buffalo school not to fulfill any quota, I included them simply because it was an awesome story.

I tried to find a video link to my Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo series but did not. That was the SEVEN consecutive shows in a row I did featuring outstanding teenagers from Buffalo. Every year, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo send a nominee from each clubhouse to the "A-KID-emy Awards". That's where the pick the "Youth of the Year".

Rather than just send a camera to the awards ceremony, me and a camera man went to each clubhouse and spent and hour and a half with each nominee, that way they all get their well-deserved time in the spotlight. For one entire week, plus two days on the next, these seven great kids (all but one a minority) were featured on Daybreak. Those reports aired in late March I believe.

Also, stay tuned in early June for my report on two Buffalo kids who are about to graduate high school without missing a single day of school in THIRTEEN years! One warning though, I do NOT know the ethnicity of the two Buffalo kids. I never asked, and I never will. I don't care. I hope whatever color they are, it's one you approve of.

See ya' in the morning!

-Kevin O'Neill

Reading this thread from top to bottom tonight has convinced me that BRO is a wholy unacceptable place to have any sort of discussion deeper than "where to go to lunch tomorrow." Racism and class warfare is a little too involved when the editor of the site, who has in previous posts claimed to be a journalist, is making pig noises.

Drop the rants from random emailers. Stick to restaurant openings.

eliot - Good point. That other city mentioning by Buffalo Rising's 'managing editor' was very favorable. They would never didn't imply any insults to Omaha, desk clerks, or sociology graduates.

for all I know you're a bored night clerk at a Motel 6 in Omaha, Nebraska with a sociology degree tacked to the wall

Not insulting. Not elitist. Buffalo Rising wouldn't throw a fit any time they see Buffalo mentioned the same way. Thanks for catching my mistake.

I have actually noticed that local media outlets "do" exert a great deal of effort to cover events in the minority community. Perhaps the problem lies in the paucity of positive programs provided...or in the fact that these very communities have a tendency to ruin otherwise happy vignettes. Need I remind our fair readers of the shootings which occurred during Juneteenth? Or how about the True Bethel Baptist Church's Subway being held up? What about the role of the Bethel Community Development Corp in urban blight and the ownership of problem properties? Rather than bitch and moan about the big bad [and presumably, white]wolf, why not start a small community garden, get the neighborhood children involved, and THEN call the Why Guy...I have no doubt that he would jump on the story.

I would think that advertisers would love all the traffic and outside links such as the one I made.