Rex Smith

If you look at what’s on the shelves at airport bookstores, you figure most folks pick travel reading material that gives their mind a getaway, too. I wish I could be that person. But I inevitably find myself picking out something that I figure will help me catch up with what I should have learned a long time ago. Time away is a perfect opportunity for self-betterment, right?

(Airs 10/10/25 @ 3 p.m. & 10/12/25 @ 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 former Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, and Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy and Barbara talk the new Pentagon rules for journalists, media trust at an all-time low, an interview with special guest Glenn Kessler, former fact checker for The Washington Post, and much more.

Scientists have long known that there’s a link between heredity and personality – that who we are is in part influenced by who came before us. That doesn’t give you an excuse for, say, being a jerk just because your great-grandpa was. But certain personality traits are affected by our DNA.

(Airs 10/03/25 @ 3 p.m. & 10/05/25 @ 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, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany, 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 and David talk about more and more journalists arrested at protests, why broadcasters repeat the news, your letters, and much more.

Today I’d like to say just a few words about words that are not said – ways that we’re encouraged to avoid truth-telling.

You know those photos that show a younger Donald Trump hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein and some underage girls – one of them showing Trump with his hand on a young girl’s leg? Have you seen those? Yeah, well, they’re not real, folks.

(Airs 09/12/25 @ 3 p.m. & 09/14/25 @ 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 former Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, and Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and current Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy and Barbara talk about the importance of the weather beat, a major collaboration between a non-profit news organization and The New York Times, coverage or non-coverage of crowd reaction at the U.S. Open, and much more.

In recent weeks, I have used this golden opportunity to offer commentary on a valued regional public radio network mainly to talk about journalism. I’m comfortable with that because it has been my professional focus for a half-century.

(Airs 09/05/25 @ 3 p.m. & 09/07/25 @ 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 former Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, and Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian, and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy and Barbara talk about coverage of President Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to Chicago, Artificial Intelligence in journalism, the Fox Trump feedback loop, and much more.

There’s a reference book called the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, which is how I know that it was some five-and-a-half centuries ago that a book first declared, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Actually, in that 1576 book, Petit Palace, attributed to someone named G. Pettie, the phrasing was, “So long as I knoweth it not, it hurteth me not.”