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What is the standard?  The effect of printing news not fit to print.

WPCNR REPORTING TODAY. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. June 11, 2023:

Since when is a state convention in Georgia worth covering by a national newspaper based in New York, worth a front page of “analysis”?

It’s not.

When, when in one week the state houses of New York State blamed Governor Kathy Hochul for failure to address the affordable housing needs in the state, when the State Senators and Assembly members simply refused to go along with Governor Hochul’s setting quotas for affordable housing that each town had to provide.

This decision of the affordable housing shortage was simply a perpetuation of the redlining and restrictive zoning that towns and villages have used for years to prevent townhouse developments, small and large apartments from being built in the suburban (read mostly white) communities across the state.

The paper I read this morning has not to my knowledge front-paged that prejudiced, self-interested, “keep-my-constituents-happy policy they decided to support . The Hochul Housing Compact plan provided money for units to be built over 8 years. It required movement on affordable housing developments by the communities. But no, the feckless State Senate by their rejection of  throwing out zoning as a restriction to such development, went with their self-interest, continuing to allow prejudiced zoning laws – when everyone in White Plains knows that in White Plains there is always the “Special Permit” process for changing zoning.

This morning’s paper instead analyzed a speech given by an ex-President highlighting a state convention ¾ of the country away.

In a week when, when,  this same paper, chose to ignore the State Senate and Assembly swift passage of a bill requested by White Plains to allow White Plains to  entertain offers for their parking garage that is part of The Galleria now owned by Pacific Retail Partners (site plan still awaited).

The proposal was sent to the State Senator (Shelley Mayer) who sponsored the bill three days BEFORE the council filed and spread to themselves and city departments. What? That’s what the description of the bill said in the state’s bill description, (received June 2, passed Wednesday June 6, and on Friday it was passed by the Assembly. Now Governor Hochul has to sign it. This was never reported by the paper I read this morning.

This was far bigger  a story locally because it affects a major possible development in White Plains and sets a new policy that could affect other developments in Westchester, New York City and Long Island.

So those two stories of tremendous impact on development and addressing needs of Westchester County and all suburbs were not important? Come on: it shows how governments work. They are not transparent to the citizens and they have their own agendas. They do what they want. They use legislation that damages politicians they want to defeat in the future, or get rid of. (See the Andrew Cuomo harassment-resignation scenario).

But wait, you defend the perpetuation of discredited politician’s message to a nondescript state wide convention because he’s national figure? Because he is good copy? Because he is news? The analysis of that speech amplified  a message that was neither something new, conciliatory (which would have been news)? The speech they gave “most-important place in the paper” had no news in it.

News, editors, means something people need to know about that affects your life. Why did they need to know what this person said when what  could be construed to be a call to take violent action against the higest placed leaders in this country. This is rogue news judgment. It’s chasing readership, advertising dollars because it gains eyeballs.

Oh, there’s another story not being reported.

Sunday most every town supervisor, village head and county leader  in the state are outraged that a bill passed by the assembly Friday made all towns villages across the state switch their elections to coincide with national and state elections in November. The bill was sponsored by State Senator Amy Paulin in the State Senate and State Senator from the NY 42^nd district.

The trouble is, the State Senate did not tell all the town village and county leaders about it.

What? Three secret Albany decisions passed without telling people they were going to do this?

THAT isn’t news in the opinions of other media other than myself???

Clue to editors: secret lawmaking is news.  Coverups are news. Decisions made in secret because a city, or politically connected politicians want them are news, especially when passed in the last week of a state legislature session.

They in their always smug, cavalier cleverness kept it secret.  It is defended as saving towns, villages, and counties in the state as a money saving boon for the villages towns and counties. It is derided by the leaders as defocusing importance of local elections.

By the way the Albany leadership put out a news release  blaming Governor Hochul for failure to address the housing issue. They did not put out news releases on switching election day or approving  the  White Plains right to sell the Galleria Parking Garage.

Journalism cannot continue sensationalism without responsibility.

Journalism schools must take a look at the outmoded journalism commandments of their traditions of the past, the very nature of which have been responsible for aiding and abetting the greatest killers and crimes of our country.

There was  the usurping of Indian lands under the happy talk of manifest destiny; endorsement of the slave trade, making heroes of leaders of organized crime; the refusal to help the Armenians, not granting amnesty to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany; glamourizing Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Senator Joseph McCarthy, General Patton, and again this morning they did it again on the front page.

The press today is more in love with lunatics who provide good copy. No matter how lunatic they are. Why does the mad bomber deserve a half page obituary? This is another eyeball story today. The death of a mass murderer deserves  one paragraph not an apology for the action and what caused it.

Unfortunately this is the perpetuation of judgment of the past being upgraded to give newspapers and media more say in swaying what they think is right or want.

I wrestle every day whether I should report certain stories, press releases, letters and news conferences I can report on (if I chose to).

I weigh whether (if I print it), will I promote a cause/objective that will do harm, incite people to violence, damage a person, hurt progress (see how judgment becomes non objective?)

Journalism has not  gotten it yet.

Television news, the business press, the national newspapers controlled by multi-millionaires, use objective reporting to run their pages red with violence and reports of conflicting opinions and covering new leaders and personalities with no sense of news judgment and the lack of news judgment creates.

This has resulted to supporting political positions they see as being to their advantage.

They have consistently covering highly visible, colorful, and outspoken, shout-the loudest Senators Representatives, Governors as news.

Editors have to wake up and smell the coffee—black coffee.

Printing stories recounting lies, threats, exhortations to violence, toying with thousands of refugees and treating them like ant colonies, generate subtle messages to persons who really believe these things that these positions are OK.

Printing polls is another example of printing hypothetical maybe facts. They amplify false support. Lull the public to complacency with over confidence.

The debacle of mistrust in this country has in good part been created by the media of today and the lack of ethics in business conduct in the market place.

Let us start by asking hard questions in news conferences.

Let us stop putting on sensational eye candy of politicians pontificating, leaders giving positive news that isn’t news, analysis that that ignores the consequences of the message.

Get the cameras out of nations not in this country.

Let’s get back to the local the only place that matters to the people who live here.

Report Policy not opinion. What they will do, not what they say others should do. Report specifics.

Stop the coverage of accidents.

Stop coverage of demonstrations.

Stop second-guessing legal decisions, what they mean. You do not know.

Go for the truth always not  hyperbole.

Take analysis out of news articles.

The press electronic and print should go with

Who. What. When. Why. How. If they can’t tell you report they didn’t.

Do not print any of the news that isn’t fit to print.

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The New York State Assembly voted  Friday to move COUNTY, town and village elections across the state with the exception of New York City, to November in even years on the next to last day of the current legislative section.

The existence of the legislation was not known to many Town Supervisors in the state. Paul Feiner, Town Supervisor of Greenburgh who brought this to the attention with  his letter to WPCNR Friday, added this comment tonight”

“Municipal officials all over the state are outraged. No discussion, no transparency by the legislature. No debate. Snuck it in for a vote as a surprise.”

The  legislation, approved by both houses, now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul for signature.

The law-to-be, if the Governor signs it will not affect School District elections, currently held in the spring of every year.

Amy Paulin of the Assembly sponsored the bill. In the State Senate James Skoufis of of the 42nd Assembly District sponsored the bill.

The description of the bill (A4282B) reads as follows:

 AN ACT to amend the town law, the village law, the county law,  and  the
   municipal  home  rule  law, in relation to moving certain elections to
   even-numbered years

PURPOSE:
 
Provides that certain local elections held outside of New York City
shall be held on election day in November in even-numbered years.
 

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Wildfire smoke, COVID-19, and striking comparisons

By Dr. KATELYN JETELINA (Reprinted with permission) 

JUN 9, 2023

Watching wildfire smoke blanket the Northeast U.S. and parts of Canada over the past few days has been surreal. Air quality is impacted for tens of millions of people, with off the charts pollutant levels in some areas.

I can’t help but notice striking comparisons with this public health problem to another— the pandemic.

Oh …those things called masks

Given wildfire smoke and respiratory droplets are larger than N95’s filtration efficiencies, this means masks work for both.

I’ve heard that more people are wearing masks in the past two days than I did last winter when COVID, RSV, and flu blanketed communities. I chalk this up to three things:

1. Visible vs. invisible threats. When something is invisible, it’s much more difficult to act. This has long been a menace to public health. Would masking during winter be different if viruses created green plumes of smoke? Tools that make viruses as visible as smoke, like perhaps a viral load indicator on weather apps, could be low-hanging fruit.
2. Immediate vs delayed effect. Symptoms from smoke are pretty immediate (i.e., watery eyes, coughing). Symptoms from viruses are delayed (takes a few days to replicate in your body). And, in some cases, the immune system will prevent infection or symptoms altogether. So, the causal relationship is less apparent to people.
3. Novel vs. familiar threat. COVID-19 is not novel anymore; the majority of people have become more comfortable placing its risk among our normal repertoire of threats. Wildfire smoke in the Northeast is novel. Would the same number of people be wearing a mask after 3.5 years of wildfire smoke?

Politicization is on full display… again

It didn’t take long for the politicization of public health and climate change to be on full display with wildfire smoke. Just like with the pandemic, this is gravely dangerous to the health of communities.

One national news station pushed the idea that there are no health harms with wildfire smoke and masks don’t work. That’s just plain wrong. As one epidemiologist said during the pandemic, “Politicizing masks makes as much sense as politicizing gravity.”

Risk communication is key

Clear, timely risk communication is important so people can make evidence-based decisions today. We did this terribly during the pandemic. It was better with smoke.

With a novel threat, like wildfire smoke, it’s best to compare to harms we do know—like cigarettes. This helps gauge risk more accurately. For example, thanks to data from Berkeley Earth, I found breathing in excessive amounts of wildfire smoke (rated “purple” on the Air Quality Index scale) is equivalent to smoking half a pack of cigarettes. Time to wear that mask?

Signs of climate change

Contrary to a few nasty emails I received after my last post, yes… climate change is a problem. Both viruses and wildfires put this on full display:

• Smoke: An estimated 82 million Americans will experience a 57% increase in frequency and a 31% increase in the intensity of “smoke waves”—2 or more consecutive days with high wildfire-specific PM_2.5—in years to come. Northern California, Western Oregon, and the Great Plains will suffer the most.
• Viruses: Climate change is increasing the transmission of viruses. Animals and humans are moving to higher elevations, different biodiversity hotspots, and areas previously uninhabited. For example, mosquitos are migrating to new areas and, thus, introducing diseases to previously protected populations.

Importance of indoor air quality

Both events show that improving indoor air is a powerful mitigation tool that has been underutilized for decades. In addition, some of the best public health interventions are those happening in the background: institutional interventions that work passively and invisibly for the individual. Addressing indoor air in an equitable way is a massive challenge, and I hope we improve with time.

Bottom line

We need to be smarter and better adapt because the environment around us is rapidly changing. Our health depends on it, whether the threat comes from wildfires or viruses.

Love, YLE

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“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, data scientist, wife. During the day she works at a nonpartisan health policy think tank and is a senior scientific consultant to a number of organizations, including the CDC. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below:

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. By John F. Bailey. June 8, 2023 UPDATED JUNE 9, 2023  6 PM EDT: 

The City of White Plains legislation granting the city the right to “alienate”(divest or sell) the Galleria Parking Garage has been passed by the Assembly, a WPCNR source following the legislation reported to WPCNR Friday evening

WPCNR has learned a  bill the City of White Plains submitted to State Senator Shelley Mayer Tuesday, sent to the Assembly Wednesday, where the bill A-7674 has cleared the Assembly Ways and Means Committee today  and put on the agenda today, and was heading to the Assembly Floor for a vote has been passed.

The bill was filed and spread by the Common Council on the consent agenda Monday evening. It went to State Senator Shelley Mayer’s office Friday June 2.

John Callahan, the Corporation Counsel for White Plains told WPCNR Thursday night  the bill if passed was submitted to State Senator Mayer and Assembly Woman Amy Paulin, “to give the city maximum flexibility if any formal proposals are submitted for the city parking garage.” 

He said “No offers have been made on the property. The Common Council would have to approve any sale of the property.”

The bill, already passed by the State Senate as of Wednesday, went to the Assembly ways and means committee which approved it to be sent to the assembly floor by late this afternoon.

Callahan noted to WPCNR, if the legislature did not approve the request for “alienation” of the garage property before the end of this session of the state legislature, it could be months to get the bill passed.

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