Thursday, March 27, 2008

THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END?

The world is coming to an end? That’s news to me. I never said that, I’ve never implied that. Until Thursday, March 20, I didn’t know anybody thought that. In his testimony before the State Senate Budget Committee, David Rosen, budget and finance officer for the Office of Legislative Services was asked by State Senator Steve Oroho what he thought would be a worst-case scenario as far as revenues for the State. Rosen answered, “I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that right know. Let me think about that because I really didn’t think about it in those terms and I don’t want to glibly throw something off and have 101.5 say, you know, OLS thinks the world is ending.”

New Jersey 101.5 FM is one of 12 stations for which I file daily reports. Every budget story I’ve ever done has reflected both sides of the story. The day of Rosen’s testimony our network ran a package of my stories based on what Rosen and acting State Treasurer David Rousseau said the previous day to members of the Assembly Budget Committee. Every quote culled from the pair was verbatim and unedited.

Rosen’s comment about my flagship station was the topic of conversation on press row, at least it was when I was around. Senate Budget Committee chair Barbara Buono and State Senator Tony Bucco, also a budget panel member, both joked with me about it and assured me that Rosen was talking about the talk show hosts, not the news coverage.

I get it. This has been happening for 6 years. The hosts are with the entertainment/programming department and it is their job to stir the pot, drum up controversy and get listeners fired up and they have a lot of listeners. When I first took the job of State House correspondent for Millennium Radio New Jersey, members of the McGreevey press team would complain about what the hosts were saying and I would see what I could do about it. I figured out quickly that there was nothing I could do about it. My solution was to stop listening to my own station.

I’ve been at the State House long enough to get know most everybody and most everybody knows there is a difference in my company between the entertainment and news departments. Most everybody also knows I don’t listen to the station. For those who don’t realize this, I’ll say it again……I have no control over what the hosts say. Whatever it is they are saying, I can promise you that I didn’t hear it. I haven’t been to the studios of NJ 101.5 since U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Tom Kean Jr. debated one another. I rarely talk to the hosts and see them even less frequently. I happen to like and respect all of them and I believe they are all very talented which is why they can claim so many fans, but anybody who has a problem with what the hosts are saying are free to call the studios and go on the air with them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very Good Blog. I started reading them after I heard you on with The Leader of The Late Night Tommy G election night. Keep up the good work.

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Smokey said...

Whe are we going to do something about the high cost of oil and gasoline?

The politicians just keep spending and laughing at all of us, it is time to through them out of office.