The local TV news was in a tizzy. On
Thursday, January 6, the live noon broadcasts on WROC (Channel 8) and WHEC
(Channel 10) were interrupted, just as they were trying to report on the
Highland Hospital power outage.
A man wearing a beige body suit labeled
“Invisible Suit” and a man in a mask jumped into the TV stations’ live
broadcasts. The two men, plus a third masked man with a video camera, were
taken into police custody and later released. In a press statement issued later
that day, a group called Newsbreakers (“When News Breaks, We Bust It”) took
credit, saying they are a nonviolent media watchdog group that “temporarily
reclaimed the airwaves in the name of the American people.”
But WROC disagreed. On the evening
news, reporter Elizabeth Harness (who was reporting at noon when the protest
took place, a still is pictured above) said, “the group is nothing more than
pranksters intent on interrupting local news coverage.” And in a story on
WROC’s website, the station said Harness was assaulted during the protest, that
Newsbreakers pushed her into the side of a van while Invisible Suit man danced
behind her. (Newsbreakers’ own video seems to show that Harness may actually
have backed into the van out of discomfort.)
Both WROC reports and a Democrat and Chronicle story indicated
that Newsbreakers would not comment on what they were trying to accomplish.
Buck Owens, Newsbreakers’ senior political correspondent, says that just isn’t
so. And as soon as he could reach City on a phone line that accepted unidentified calls, he was happy to explain the
organization’s goals.
The group, he says, is trying to raise
a question. “And that question is pretty simple: Are you happy with the job
that news, TV news in particular, is doing?” Owens says Newsbreakers, using
parody, protest core problems like “overzealous” FCC regulations and corporate
ownership of media outlets. The point is “getting people talking about the
issue of TV news quality.” He points to discussion boards on medialine.com and
b-roll.net, where people, reacting to the January 6 pranks, are talking about
just that.
Newsbreakers will not tell their real
names, whether or not they’re based in Rochester, or even what other pranks
they’re responsible for. Owens sympathetically calls it “an awkward situation.”
You can
download the videos and get other information at www.newsbreakers.org.
— Erica Curtis
Now
on cable
Local
cable subscribers have likely caught a glimpse of Time Warner’s latest ad campaign. Airing at random across the cable
spectrum, the ad stars Pittsford Town Supervisor Bill Carpenter, who gives a
testimonial on the various benefits Time Warner’s cable and internet services
bring to his town.
Pittsford
resident and Empire State Consumer Association President Judy Braiman has seen
the ad, and it has motivated her to lobby the town to change its code of
ethics.
The
code, she says, should prohibit “town officials or employees from advertising
for any company. I think it’s absolutely wrong. I’m not saying
they’re doing anything illegal. But I believe it’s wrong.”
Carpenter
was approached by Brian Wirth, Time Warner’s vice president of government and
public affairs, to testify in the ad. And Carpenter says he wanted to keep his
remarks “limited.”
“I
put a definition on it,” Carpenter says. “I didn’t want it to be an
endorsement, necessarily, of Time Warner. I wanted to speak from a government
perspective on how I think an organization like Time Warner helps town
government communicate with its residents. I’m primarily talking about Road
Runner and how it helps with cable-access TV.” Pittsford uses cable-access
fairly typically, as a virtual “bulletin board” to post community news and a
community calendar.
Municipalities
like the Town of Pittsford negotiate for their cable services with providers
— in this case Time Warner — every 10 or 15 years. Pittsford is in the
second year of its latest 10-year contract, and the advertisement was made
after those negotiations. And, like most municipalities, Pittsford negotiates
for free Time Warner service in its municipal buildings and schools.
“There’s
no financial benefit out of this,” Carpenter says of his testimonial. “There’s
nothing I derive out of this. If it weren’t for Time Warner, we couldn’t have
cable-access TV anywhere in Monroe County. You can’t get that through the
satellite. So when we’re talking about competition, I think it’s reasonable to
say: Hey, that’s something they’re providing us. It’s an easy way for people to
tune in and get information about the community. I think that’s a good thing.”
Carpenter
acknowledges his role in negotiating for his town’s cable services, but he
doesn’t feel that role’s been compromised by his star turn.
Brighton
Town Supervisor Sandra Frankel, for one, agrees with Carpenter when he says
“negotiations [with cable providers] today are so limited.”
“The
Federal Communications Commission and the Telecommunications Act limit
significantly what local governments can do as they negotiate for cable TV
services, internet, and the like,” Frankel says.
Perhaps
the most significant aspect of cable negotiations are franchise fees — the
amount the cable provider must compensate each community for its use of local
infrastructure, and to offset any costs associated with administering the
service. But even those fees have been capped under federal law at 5 percent of
the operator’s gross revenue on a community-by-community basis. The law allows
cable providers to then pass those fees along to costumers.
Negotiations
aside, Carpenter doesn’t feel it’s inappropriate for him to sing Time Warner’s
praises.
“My
ability to say ‘these are the things they offer’ does not influence our
expectation of how they continue to deliver service to residents,” he says. “I
don’t think it’s outside my role to be able to say that. If I’m pushing them as
a service, which in some ways I am, I understand why people might have
objections. And that’s why my discussion is limited to how Time Warner benefits
communities as a communication tool.”
Time
Warner’s Wirth says the company will likely approach other heads of municipal
government to participate in the campaign. Asked if she’d participate, Frankel
declines.
“I
hear where Bill is coming from,” she says, “but it’s not something I would be
comfortable doing.”
—
Chad Oliveiri
The
opening round
It’s
almost two years away. And the incumbent candidate hasn’t yet said whether
he’ll seek reelection.
But
that hasn’t stopped the state’s
gubernatorial race from grabbing early headlines. It’s also serving as the
occasion for brand-new state GOP Chairman Steve Minarik’s debut on the Albany
stage. The Rochester ad man and longtime Monroe County Republican Chair cut his
teeth as a statewide attack dog with a sharp critique of Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer.
In
a January 6 press release, he lambasted what the release described as Spitzer’s
“anti-business approach to New York’s economy.” Citing a similar criticism
leveled against the crusading attorney general by the US Chamber of Commerce,
Minarik said “The reality is that Mr. Spitzer is a job-killer who will do and
say anything to grab a headline, and promote his fledgling campaign for
governor.”
The
release came just a day after Gov. Pataki’s State of the State address, which
met with widespread criticism. Minarik, though, praised the speech, telling
several media outlets it sounded like a reelection speech.
The
anti-business knock against Spitzer could be a preview of how Republicans plan
to approach the campaign, regardless of whether or not Pataki decides to run;
Minarik repeated his charges that Spitzer is anti-business and therefore “hurts
jobs and hurts taxpayers” a day later in an interview with the editorial board
of the New York Daily News.
Assigning
Randy
As
Randy Kuhl gets his feet wet in
Washington, there’s already one small tidbit of good news for his district.
The
region’s newest congressman was assigned seats on the House of Representatives’
agriculture and transportation committees. While they don’t have the high
profile of Amo Houghton’s committees — Ways and Means and International
Relations — both deal with issues of critical importance to Kuhl’s largely
rural, far-flung district.
The
powerful Buffalo-area representative Tom Reynolds pointed out in a press release
announcing the assignments that Kuhl would be the only New York representative
on the ag committee. That’s especially important, not just for his district but
for the entire state, since despite New York’s huge ag industry, it routinely
loses out on lucrative federal farm subsidies.
Kuhl
also sought a waiver allowing him to serve on a third committee. Press
Secretary Bob Van Wicklin told City
Newspaper that Kuhl expects to know by next week if he’ll receive it. If he
does, Van Wicklin says Kuhl will vie for a spot on the House education
committee. Kuhl chaired the corresponding committees during his time in the
state Senate, Van Wicklin says.
Mourning
the Montage
The
Montage Grille was too big for this town — too cool, anyway. And so it closed its doors last week. Apparently, a
little class in downtown’s nightlife can’t measure up to the allure of beer
pong and a million versions of the same lame McBar.
The
supper club was truly a musical montage, with big names sharing the stage with
the not so big in virtually every genre. Perhaps a few new categories were
created on Montage’s stage, especially during Rochester International Jazz
Festival.
It’ll
be hard to imagine Jazz Fest without the Montage Grille, when this venue was
clearly the place to be every night.
And
when do you think you’ll get to see artists like John Hiatt, Link Wray, Dave
Alvin, Sophie B. Hawkins, Nancy Sinatra, Joe Locke, Sonny Fortune & Rashied
Ali, Ike Turner, Dave Edmunds, Roomful Of Blues — just to name a meager few
— up doctor-close and feel the heat literally come off the stage in such an
intimate setting?
And
the food; man, did the Montage dish out some good grub. There’s nothing like
eating chocolate cake over white linen and watching a band you love playing
inches from your face. And there probably won’t be again with this club’s
closing.
As
the years go by, when folks remember historic moments at the Montage, more
people will claim to have “been there when” than ever actually were. If you
ever darkened the door at this joint — even once — you’ll mourn its passing
and wonder where you’re gonna go now. If you never did, the girl at the end of
the bar in the DMB T-shirt wants to do a Jell-O shot with you.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2005.
