Rex Smith

Lately I’ve been noticing how many English words are portmanteaus – that is, words created by joining parts of two other words. You know, like “brunch,” which is a smooshing together of breakfast and lunch, or “blog,” which was created from “web” and “log.” There’s a lot of this in America: We get “sporks” at fast-food joints, and we go home to sit next to our “labradoodle” and multi-task by browsing our “email” while watching a “sitcom” or a “romcom” or maybe a “bromance.”

(Airs 03/21/25 & 03/23/25 @ 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, Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany and former Editor of the Saratogian, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara, and Ian talk about what the White House Press Corps needs, the difficulty of reporting on what’s going with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, why local and regional reporting is so important, and much more.

Those of us who work in journalism understand that when we tell people that we’re worried about what the Trump administration is doing to press freedom -- and particularly about the threat of changes to libel law -- we might sound like just another interest group pleading for our own privileges. Here in Albany, where I’m speaking just now, we see a lot of that, after all.

(Airs 03/14/25 & 03/16/25 @ 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, Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany and former Editor of the Saratogian, and Daily Freeman Publisher Emeritus Ira Fusfeld. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara, and Ira talk about the difficulty of covering news under the Trump Administration, Jeff Bezos and what’s happening at the Washington Post, the threat to libel law, and much more.

In this commentary last week, we discussed some notions of how to maintain our mental health in turbulent times for America. Not that I’m a psychologist, mind you – I’m just a journalist, who has come across some research that I consider worth passing along.

(Airs 03/07/25 & 03/09/25 @ 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, Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany and former Editor of the Saratogian, Daily Gazette Editor Miles Reed and David Guistina, Media Project Producer, Morning Edition Anchor, and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Barbara, Miles and David talk about the increasing need for public media, the challenge of covering the local angles of the Doge cuts, what’s happening at the Washington Post, and much more.

Being a guy, you know, I assumed for a long time that I was supposed to be able to fix things. For years, this led to lots of disappointment, especially early in our marriage, before my wife figured out that my skill set was limited to – well, punctuation, I guess. It took me longer than most folks to understand that it’s OK to not even try to be the fix-it guy – and that sometimes folks just want you to listen and care, not to tell them what to do. People are less eager to be confronted with an agenda than to be comforted with understanding, I finally learned.

(Airs 02/28/25 & 03/02/25 @ 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, Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany and former Editor of the Saratogian, and Jimmy Vielkind, a reporter for WNYC and The Gothamist. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara, and Jimmy talk about the evolution of media coverage at the state capital, the intimacy of radio news, whether we need more working-class journalists, and much more.

I was always impressed with the many titles of Haile Selassie, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia for 45 years starting in 1930. I mean, he ruled! After all, who could withstand the power of a guy known as “Keeper of the Door,” and “King of Kings” and, especially, “Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty.” That’s a seriously fine job title.

(Airs 02/21/25 & 02/23/25 @ 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, Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany and former Editor of the Saratogian, and Daily Gazette Editor Miles Reed. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and Miles talk about how efforts to suppress a local editorial, the continuing controversy over the AP reporting on the Gulf of Mexico, and much more.