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Rex Smith

  • People have always learned important life lessons from theater. Take the plays of Shakespeare, for example. The moral of Romeo & Juliet is clearly that nothing good can come of hatred; Macbeth is chilling in its lesson that danger and darkness lie in deep ambition. Julius Caesar? Maybe it’s this: Be careful how you wield power (and who you choose as friends).
  • I’ve been redistricted again. I haven’t moved, but New York’s new congressional district boundaries have, and the new lines divide our little town between two districts – neither of them represented by our current member of Congress. And it makes me feel a bit, well, disempowered. It’s as though politicians chose whose constituent I will be, rather than me choosing the politician who will represent me.
  • (Airs 03/08/24 @ 3 p.m. & 03/10/24 @ 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 Media Project producer David Guistina. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and David talk about how a lack of local reporting effects the Supreme Court, polling and what to believe, how media can fight American’s “collective amnesia” over the past behavior of the Presidential candidates, and much more.
  • A lot of things that people used to believe turned out not to be true: The earth is not flat, and it isn’t the center of the universe. Smoking will not aid digestion, as some doctors paid by tobacco companies asserted in the 1950s. And human sperm does not contain miniscule but completely pre-formed individuals, though what’s called “preformation” was the dominant theory of generation in the 18th century.
  • (Airs 03/01/24 @ 3 p.m. & 03/03/24 @ 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, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Barbara and Ian talk about Pink Slime journalism, who should make the decision of what news gets covered on line, and much more.
  • I don’t know about you, but I always feel better after the Imbolc. You know about the Imbolc, right? That’s the threshold between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox – the point when there’s finally enough daylight for plants to begin to grow. This year, it was February 1st.
  • (Airs 02/16/24 @ 3 p.m. & 02/18/24 @ 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, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University, and WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Barbara, and Ian talk about the White House being upset over coverage of the special counsel’s report, what happens when journalists move to the “dark side,” and much more.
  • There was a time, back when I was in my 20s, when what seemed to matter most to the American voters who lived around me was the apparent shortage of lids for canning jars. I was working for a Midwestern congressman then, and just about all people talked about across our rural district when they encountered their representative in Congress was – yep! – the canning lid shortage.
  • (Airs 02/09/24 @ 3 p.m. & 02/11/24 @ 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 WAMC News Director Ian Pickus. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara, and Ian talk about a new program at the State University of New York designed to put student journalists to work in news deserts, police coverage, Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin, and much more.
  • Not long ago, along a country road in the Mohawk Valley, I saw what struck me as an odd sight: an Amish fellow driving a tractor. You know, the Amish are known for horse-and-buggy transportation, because of rules in their culture limiting technology that the elders fear could introduce what they consider foreign ideas. So, as I understand it, Amish people can’t drive a car, but they can hire somebody to drive them; and while many Amish communities permit technology powered by 12-volt batteries, none allow 120-volt electricity. So, no, I don’t get the tractor thing.