March 29th, 2009 
joel Good discussion last week on the merits of government intervention into the media. For some of us old timers, just the idea that we are discussing such intermingling is pretty shocking, but indeed, we are in an age of change.
Let’s keep the conversation going, wherever you wish it to go. It’s my understanding that quite a few media-savvy college students are known to peruse this blog; please share your thoughts on Erie and the national media. We’d love to hear from you.
Please send any private comments to joel@nataliemedia.com or via Twitter @pressandtower.
Embrace the chaos!
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Any update of the WICU-WSEE merge. Who will go and who will stay?
I won’t be back in Erie until the beginning of May. And I was just wondering if any of the sports radio stations will be broadcasting Indians, Pirates, or Seawolves games?
Tuesday’s 6 pm newscast on WICU reported (twice!) that Kathy Dahlkemper is claiming that she voted for the largest middle class tax cut in American history in the stimulus bill. She said that most taxpayers will notice an increase in their take home pay next week.
WICU failed to report that not a single tax has been reduced. Only withholding tables were changed, meaning that our tax bill has not gone down but the amount of your refund next year will be substantially reduced, or if you don’t get a refund your tax bill will be higher.
I was a little surprised at the misinformation WICU reported. They are usually better than the other stations at bringing in “experts” to explain issues.
Not this time.
A couple of weeks ago at least two stations broadcast video, obviously provided by representative Dahlkemper, of her taking to the floor of the House to denounce the AIG bonuses. Yet, they never reported that she VOTED TO PROTECT those bonuses in the “stimulus” bill.
So, I have a question; Do the TV stations allow Dahlkemper to write her own coverage? Or, has she or her staff threatened the broadcast licenses of the television stations too?
Word from Scranton/Wilkes Barre that effective tomorrow (Friday 4/4/09) Nexstar is dropping local news from CBS affiliate WYOU-22 which is run under LMA by NBC affiliate WBRE-28. Here is the story from the paper —
http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2009/04/03/news/doc49d66171404af046241500.txt
Several interesting similarities there with the situation in Erie DMA which don’t require elaboration.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be an April Fools’ story
WICU-TV is now doing its newscasts from a much smaller, temporary news set. Is this to make room in the studio for the WSEE news desk?
What happened to Shannon Solo? His Bio has been removed from the WICU website. Who is doing weekend weather?
Slowly the screw tightens at ICU. Who will be the next to get the pink sip from Brian L the Destroyer of local TV?
Anyone happen to know what those little ’static bursts’ are that you can hear on Channel 12? Sometimes, it’s during a newscast and sometimes during regular programming.
Even though I don’t know him personally, sometime along the way when I used MySpace alot, I added him as a friend. His bio there says he’s on his way to Nashville, presumably to record?