Corporate parents are negotiating a merger that would impact Buffalo operations. Plus: the tone-deafness of Tim Kennedy and Chris Collins.
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We’re facing the prospect of a merger involving the chain owners of Channels 2 and 4, who between them dominate the local TV news ratings. According topress reports, Nextstar, whose holdings include WIVB, is negotiating to acquire TEGNA (WGRZ) in a deal that would involve 264 stations nationally.
Media consolidations are rarely a good thing, and the Buffalo market is likely to be ill-served by a Nextstar-TEGNA merger. Competition is likely to take a hit and a downsizing of the joined operations is likely, although the stations would maintain separate newsrooms. Staff salaries at Channel 2 are likely to take a hit, as Nextstar is considered apenny-pinching employer.
This analysis dives into the details of the deal.
Local TV stations are in better shape than daily newspapers, but their financial fortunes are starting to fade as their audience shrinks. Between them, Channels 2, 4 and 7 have lost about one-third of their audience in the past five years. The worst is yet to come.
I wrote an analysis five years ago onthe state of local media here in Buffalo, which while a little dated in spots, holds up pretty well.
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Terry Pegula bought the Bills for $1.4 billion in 2014. The team is nowworth an estimated $6 billion. Further proof he should have built his own damn stadium without strong-arming taxpayers.
And, not for nothing, but the Thursday print edition ofThe Buffalo (Sporting) News included five staff-written stories about the Bills and just seven about local affairs. Just sayin’.
In arecent column for the paper, Alan Pergament griped about how sports coverage on local TV stations focuses on the Bills to the exclusion of other sports. Fair enough. But he’s throwing stones from within a glass house.
The Buffalo News reportedChris Collins wants to run for Congress again, this time representing a district in Florida. He came across in the article as arrogant, awkward and tone deaf as ever. TheBuffalo Pundit opined on the prospect of a Collins comeback.
Speaking of tone deaf, Congressman Tim Kennedy was among 11 Democratic lawmakers who tagged along on a recentAIPAC funded trip to Israel. What the man won’t do for a campaign contribution.
As of mid-March, our freshman Congressman had received $44,250 from thepro-Israel lobbying group. The two senators and 24 Congress members representing New York State havereceived $30.8 million from AIPAC over the years. OnlyAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez has passed on the money.
Ken Kruly, in his latest post on Politics and Other Stuff, details thefinancial dumpster fire that awaitsSean Ryan when he occupies the mayor’s office in January. Not surprising, given the flawed budget Scanlon got the Common Council to rubber stamp in June and all the red ink he inherited from Byron Brown.
The decision by the Genesee County IDA tooffer Plug Power nearly $270 million in subsidies to locate at the STAMP industrial park is looking even worse. The New York Times reports the business the company is in — using hydrogen to produce clean energy — istanking. For this, the IDA offered subsidies worth$4 million per job.
Down the Thruway in Rochester,Kodak is in real trouble. In an SEC filing last week the company saidthere’s “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The quality of care at hospitals in New York State isbottom of the barrel according to new federal data. We rank 48th among the 50 states.
Here’s a link to ratings of individual hospitals in WNY. Not pretty.
There isno crime wave in Washington, D.C., that justifies Donald Trump’s federal takeover of law enforcement in the capital. Rather, the move is adress rehearsal for a takeover of other blue cities. His move last week raises the specter of martial law, whichwe should not expect the military to resist.
I used to think talk of a civil war was alarmist. Now, I dunno.
As The Times op-ed put it:
The danger of escalation is real. Soldiers and Marines are trained for combat, not constabulary duty and riot control. Expecting military personnel to shift seamlessly from destroying an enemy on the battlefield to law enforcement is asking for trouble. And the deployment of troops to urban areas may provoke clashes with citizens who may be motivated to pick up a gun. Once shots are fired at military personnel, no matter where the shots come from, the administration will have the pretext it requires to tighten its grip using instruments of state control. This might sound far-fetched, but it can spin out of control.
Trump’s poll numberscontinue to drop, according to the latest from the Pew Research Center. While most Republicans give him a positive job rating, that number is starting to inch down. His handling of the Epstein scandal is widely panned among voters and his tariffs and the so-called Big Beautiful Bill are playing to poor reviews.
The headline says it all from this must read from The New York Times Magazine:How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power. (A gift link, as is most everything I post from The Times.)
Related is thisreport from Seymour Hersh.
On a lighter note — kinda — a new statistical analysis concludes thetwo greatest baseball players of all-time were drug cheats. I’m talking Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. The Babe ranks fourth, the Mick 23rd. I’m not buying it. (And yeah, I’m a Yankees fan.)
posted 13 minutes ago - August 18, 2025