Tag: bias

Who Runs WBEN’s Social Media?

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In February, there was a brawl at the Walden Galleria, and WBEN posted to Facebook about it.

…that is, WBEN posted about it twice.

Here is the video of that fracas.

On July 20th, there was another brawl at the Walden Galleria. Here is video of that particular event:

Its Always a fight in front of my store!!! lol at least i caught this one on camera for myself.

Posted by Timothy Moore on Monday, July 20, 2015

 

WBEN posted nothing about it. No questions about whether people will continue to shop there, or whether they “feel safe”. Nothing. Complete social media silence. That second video went as viral locally as the one from February, yet WBEN ignored it completely.

I wonder why? Can anyone spot the difference?

At this year’s Italian Festival, a fight shut down the event early one night. WBEN posted about it – again, not once…

but twice.

Here’s the video that WBEN’s social media manager felt compelled to share:

Seriously I’ve been here for five minutes. #stayclassybuffalo

Posted by Zachary Binks on Saturday, July 18, 2015

 

The second post was to inquire whether the festival should be moved away from North Buffalo because some unsupervised teenagers got into a fight.

Over this past weekend, a massive brawl among teenagers shut the Chautauqua County fair down early. Nothing on WBEN’s Facebook. Not even on its website.

I wonder why? Maybe WBEN could ask-troll its followers whether the Italian Festival should move to a safer locale like the Chautauqua County fairgrounds in Dunkirk?

Who runs WBEN’s social media, and why do some brawls find their way to WBEN’s Facebook page multiple times yet other brawls merit no mention whatsoever. I’m so confused about what WBEN considers to be newsworthy, or share-worthy. Can anyone else figure it out?

Bias in the Newsroom

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Next time you listen to a newscast – a purportedly straight newscast reported-on by Steve Cichon or Dave Debo, or anchored by John Zach and Susan Rose – remember that this banner is now hanging in that station’s newsroom: 

That’s after the station spent all day last Thursday “covering” this anti-gun rally in Albany, joining with Carl Paladino to sponsor a bus caravan of WBEN listeners to the rally. 

The funny thing is that protests in Albany are a dime a dozen, and the only novelty about this one is that it was populated by underemployed conservatives who are not used to activism that goes beyond stating their name and location for a call screener. 

WBEN’s blatant anti-SAFE Act propaganda and agitation are all well and good, I suppose, but the station should no longer masquerade as a straight news outlet. It has crossed the line into issue-based PAC and should register with the Board of Elections. Thursday’s newscast and subsequent talk shows were nothing more than an infomercial for people who think that limiting magazine capacity from 10 to 7 rounds is “tyranny”. 

In What Respect, Charlie?

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In the wake of Mitt Romney’s devastating failure to act remotely presidential in response to some international incidents, his campaign (and some in the right-wing reactionary commentariat) has shifted into “blame the media” mode, and is running now against, e.g., the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post.

This is a traditional Republican meme as reliable as Reagan hagiography, deficit spending, and tax cuts. 

I wondered this week whether the McCain/Palin team had begun running against the media as early as September 12, 2008. Luckily, GLOW-area Democratic activist Adama Brown was quick with some answers: 

 

Because the Republican mindset nowadays is such that any challenge – any attempt to check facts – any pointed, relevant question of anything at all is an “attack” and proof of some left-wing media cabal set on hurting Republicans and helping Democrats. 

This only works if you consider, “do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?” to be a slanted leftist Marxist attack.  This only works if you consider, “what insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state [of Alaska] give you?” to be a hack job set up to embarrass McCain.  

These aired on September 11, 2008. At the time, Obama was down by a few points. The conventions had just ended, and this was Sarah Palin’s first major interview. She did not acquit herself well here, there, or anywhere. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaSECfQqty8]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGSJCDw3ZBw]