February 3, 2016 by Niagara Reporter-

The Reporter has consistently led the way on train station coverage and analysis

It seems that the Reporter has become – maybe it always was – the Rodney Dangerfield of news reporting. Especially political news reporting. And this in spite of the fact that this paper consistently covers, breaks and editorializes on the uncomfortable issues that are routinely ignored or wished into the cornfield by other media outlets.

Casino taxpayer dollars going out the window, city taxpayer dollars unaccounted for as discovered by the NYS Comptroller, non transparent bidding and public projects featuring seemingly endless work change orders are just a few of the the subjects the Reporter has examined. News that some find as inconvenient truths as the city slides deeper into an abyss of debt and deficit.

A local talk show host recently broadcast that his was the sole media source raising questions about how the city’s soon to open train station was being built in the face of questions regarding its cost, its Amtrak contract and its operating budget. How he could have missed the Reporter’s dozens of train station analysis pieces in the last two years is a mystery.

The Reporter has owned the train station story and all of the questions that go with with it for more than half a decade. We were there at the beginning to counter the groundbreaking ballyhoo. We noted the $44 million minimal cost, the lack of an annual operating budget and the station location. We questioned the: historical accuracy, expense and administration of the Underground Railroad Interpretive Center; train station project consulting fees; $350,000 train station rebid; change orders; projected ridership; and, the folly of promoting a 19th Century means of travel while the local airport’s potential for charter flight and cargo handling is ignored.

In addition to the above the Reporter (tap, tap…is this microphone on…can you hear us in the back?) has been the lone news source to predict that an outside operator is going to be hired to run the train station and that federal money will be injected into the early operating years of the station to make sure it doesn’t fail. With significant federal dollars having made its construction possible there are Washington entities who can’t afford to let the project collapse once the ribbon is cut.

Rodney Dangerfield didn’t get any respect but he was one incredibly talented comedian. He had a long and successful career. Other comedians robbed his jokes and some even tried to imitate his act. But he was never threatened by the imposters because he knew that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The Reporter wishes that more media outlets would imitate our hard hitting, factual, inconvenient news reporting style.