Rex Smith

It’s the season of plenty for sports fans – which others view as exhausting excess: Before we’ve recuperated from the NCAA basketball hoopla and golf’s Masters tournament, we’re launched into the Major League Baseball season even as the NHL and the NBA are just beginning playoffs.

(Airs 04/19/24 @ 3 p.m. & 04/20/24 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Judy Patrick, former Editor of the Daily Gazette and Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and Ian talk about the Trump hush money trial and whether a judge can tell journalists what to print, the right wing revolt and calls for defunding NPR after a senior editor tell-all, and much more.

The cherry trees that line Washington’s Tidal Basin are not a species bred to yield tasty pies, jams and jellies. Washington’s cherry trees live mainly to display abundant clusters of delicate pinkish-white flowers. I was admiring them a couple of weeks ago, at the peak of what the Japanese call Sakura hanami — the season of viewing the cherry blossoms.

(Airs 04/12/24 @ 3 p.m. & 04/14/24 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Judy Patrick, former Editor of the Daily Gazette and Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University and Daily Freeman Publisher Emeritus Ira Fusfeld. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and Ira talk about coverage of the solar eclipse, a critique of NPR’s news coverage from within the newsroom, and much more.

There’s an art to the put-down, but it seems to be vanishing. You know, if you say someone’s brain is the size of a pea, you get the point across, but it’s not as memorable as, say, the approach taken by Will Rogers, who once said of a politician that “if his brain was gunpowder, he wouldn’t have enough to blow the wax out of his ears.” That, folks is rhetorical art.

(Airs 04/05/24 @ 3 p.m. & 04/07/24 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus, Media Project producer David Guistina, and Daily Gazette News Columnist Andrew Waite. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Ian, David and Andrew talk about LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey calling a Washington Post profile on her a hit piece before it was published, ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo and the New York Times taking a shot at the city of Albany, and much more.

I spent a career in journalism, but I’m not above gossip. So here’s a juicy bit: Goofy is gay. Yes, that pal of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck? Gay.

(Airs 03/29/24 @ 3 p.m. & 03/31/24 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Barbara Lombardo, Daily Freeman Publisher Emeritus Ira Fusfeld and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Barbara, Ira and Ian talk about the uproar over NBC hiring former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, a call to withdraw the video of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, and much more.

Before we get to talking about the news of the day, let’s take a moment to discuss guilt – because, after all, the personal drives the political. And we’ve all done things that we consider cringe-worthy.

(Airs 03/22/24 @ 3 p.m. & 03/24/24 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Judy Patrick, former Editor of the Daily Gazette and Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, Barbara Lombardo, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara, and Ian talk media organizations dropping the Associated Press wire service, the economic challenges facing journalism as well as the dangers facing journalists, and much more.