Here is the Bob McCarthy article I referenced sort of in passing the other day. I take no pleasure in its content, as I don’t like to see any media venture fail – especially one that has a track record of good work such as the Niagara Falls Reporter.
One accuses the other of overdipping in the till, and there are counteraccusations of Golisano/Pigeon payoffs. This is why lawyers and lawsuits and contracts and judges exist, and there are two sides to every story, so somewhere betwixt the two is where the truth lies.
Hudson is, as always, welcome to post, as is anyone else – involved or not.
If it’s true that Pigeon paid someone off to try and affect an election, and the fact that he did so wasn’t disclosed, I’d find that to be sleaze of Illuzzian proportions. If it’s true that the publisher was stealing from the company, that’s sleazy, too, although the only people affected are those with a stake in the paper; the former is a macro concern while the latter is a micro-issue.
I do, however, ask that comments avoid ad hominem attacks on people. That’s not directed at Hudson, but at those who might rip into him.
The Buffalo Record 
This is awesome.
pundit, just to be clear. all newspapers, television stations and even a lot of websites contain paid political ads around this time every year. if this is what’s being alleged then the reporter is guilty as charged.
if what is being alleged is that i took money, personally, from anybody to write front page stories about joe mesi, sam hoyt or jon powers, it’s bullshit.
as far as i know, responsible new york didn’t exist before this past summer. like other advertisers, they chose the reporter as a venue to get their message out because, despite the opinion of some here, people do read the paper.
since responsible new york began advertising, my former partner cheerfully accepted their money, which we used to pay our workers, pay the printer, pay our health care bills and other expenses. he never objected even slightly when i wrote the stories referred to in bob mccarthy’s article.
i suppose you’ll be hearing a lot about this over the coming year, so i’ll let it go at that for now. i’ve addressed a number of specific questions on the other page you’ve dedicated to this mess, so perhaps readers might take a minute and look there before asking the same question here.
that will also possibly cut down on the number of repititous insults and allegations that i’m sure will be thrown my way and encourage creative pundit readers to come up with some new material for a change.
This is what I’ve been saying all along: Hudson gets paid to attack politicians and candidates. What did Pigeon have agaisnt Powers, Hudson? Your name being so closely tied to the NF Reporter gives a bad name to its distinguished writers such as Hanchette and Gallagher.
my name is not “closely tied” to the reporter, wiztard. i invented it.
i named it, designed it, shed blood for it and have been subpoenaed on several occasions over it.
you are correct on one point, however. hanchette and gallagher are quite distinguished.
called him wiztard…
and wiztard, a month ago you were telling people i was taking money from davis to attack powers. now it’s pigeon? you really ought to make up your mind about who’s bribing me. it would be a big help in trying to collect the money they’re supposedly paying for my prince of darkness services.
I’d say being the inventor makes you pretty closely tied in with it.
So, how much were you paid to trash Powers?
did i mention i’m also a master mason? niagara frontier lodge 132, f&am.
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!
Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!
Who fucking knows Hudson. Your corruption goes a mile deep. Point being, you take money to trash people. Bob McCarthy confirmed it!
a month ago, wiztard, you were trashing bob mccarthy for writing about jon powers’ war kids relief charity. the article itself proved to me that my former partner might be a bit kooky and prone to vast conspiracy theories, just like you, wiztard!
hey bruce, is that you lurking beneath wiztard’s nom de screen?
I actually don’t recall trashing McCarthy. I pointed out that his $77k figure was incorrect because it was actually $15k, but I never attacked McCarthy. Thanks!
You fucking crook. Who’s next on your hit list?
I went to school at Sacred Heart in Niagara Falls. Bill Gallagher and Bruce Battaglia were in the class ahead of me with my oldest brother. They all attended Bishop Duffy as well.
I believe that Bill, Bruce and my bro grew up with excellent values and strong families.
I do not know Mike Hudson.
It would be tragic if Pigeon and Golisano corrupted The Niagara Reporter.
It is refreshing to have the paper available without taint.
Powers? What about Delmonte who’s paying him to hate her? He must be rich by now if he is taking money to write hate covers, Vince, Fran, and now Dyster. Someone must have deep pockets, no wonder hudson drives a caddy and uses food stamps.
JoAnne Capone says, “It is refreshing to have the paper available without taint.”
where are you getting this paper, joanne? because, as bob mccarthy pointed out in his article, bruce suspended publication of the reporter while i was conveniently 1,000 miles away from here on a vacation in the north woods of maine that he’s known about for a year.
the niagara falls reporter will be on the streets again starting with the oct. 7 edition. bruce will no longer be with the company as of this thursday.
wiztard…if you read the paper even at all you’d know that last week’s cover boy was niagara tourism and convention corp. head john percy. you may expect that trend to continue this week.
Bruce must of woke up this morning with a horses head in his bed.
on thursday, i take care of all the family business.
Hey Mike Hudson..
Tell me about your sources for the History of the Mob in NF?
I graduated from Madonna High in 1966 with Marianne Maggadino, the Godfather’s grand-daughter.
You are going to take care of family business on Thursday?
Perhaps you know how many bodies are buried at St. Joseph’s in the Falls?
Complements of the double and triple caskets available at local funeral homes?
Just wondering if Bruce will be with us on Friday is all.
Enquiring minds want to know. Capise?
I don’t know about anyone else but I find this focus on Hudson very tedious.
I thought he was dead and felt bad for being mean at times to him.
Now, I’m so over Hudson. Steve Pigeon is a scumbag with cancerous like tentacles poisoning all of WNY politics. I don’t see why the focus is on Hudson alone. Lots of people were and are complicit.
The issue is finding a DA or AG with the balls to go after Pigeon for being an unethical scumbag who breaks election laws with every step.
Pundit – you crack me up with the ‘i don’t like to see any media venture fail.’ The entirety of your operation is focused on blogging about national politics, and slamming other local media outlets from Channel 4 to Buffalo Rising and nearly everything in between.
You have become a true Buffalonian in that you take pleasure in the downfall of other WNY-ers trying to create something. Hudson created a company from nothing; people got paid, people liked the product. That’s worth a lot and it’s substantially more admirable than the parasitic professions that simply survive off the creativity and risk-taking of others. ]
Truthiness – thanks for reading!
Definining media criticism as tantamount to a death wish is your problem – not mine.
I will say that no one at WNYMedia celebrates the purported demise of The Niagara Falls Reporter. For all the back and forth we have here with Mike Hudson, prior to recent accusations, we thought that he ran a quality editorial operation at his paper. We continue to hope that the Reporter will come off life support and return to being a thorn in the side of local power brokers.
If it turns out that Mike was not above board in his editorial decisions and was dealing with Pigeon, well, I’ll be the first in line to slam him. It’s just not right. If, however, Bruce Battaglia turns out to be the bad guy, we’ll slam him. I think we should all withhold judgment until it’s all sorted out.
Finally, why is it that criticizing media outlets is somehow a bad thing? That’s what we do. It’s why we’re called WNYMedia.net not HappyBuffaloNewsAndAdvertorialsForTheUnwashedMasses.com
Honest criticism of local media and politicians is something that is sorely needed around here. Agreeing for the sake of agreement or celebrating press releases only empowers mediocrity. An unexamined region is not somewhere I wish to live. If you don’t enjoy it, you can always read another website.
Hudson needs to resign from the NF Reporter. Let a real journo like Hanchette take over.
Please do another story before you resign like the old days about Tim Demler up in Wheatfield and his “Land of Oz” theme park. Fucking idiot. Thats one pol I don’t care about you trashing, paid off or not.
Take it easy Wizard, without hudson there would be no reporter.
The Wizard, who obviously feels the need to hide their name, certainly has a boner for Hudson.
Now that I see the Reporter is available online, I guess I need to start reading this paper.
hank – “Wizard” gives you about the same amount of information about me as “hank” does about you.
I’m going to start posting as “Jason”, since having a human-like name gives you all a hard on.
Hey Mike Hudson,
So you and Baby Joe (ala “bleeding brain”-took five years to get two year degree…needs cue cards to speak) have been friends?
Have you looked into Baby Joe’s financials? Interesting that money in substantial amounts came into his campaign from poor neighborhoods in NF…being that NF is not even in the 61st District…wouldn’t be any mob money would it?
Enquiring minds like to know.
Capone, have you no shame?
I think Joanne Capone is the one with the “bleeding brain”. Capone is a disgrace to humanity. I think she’s just pissed that there are no pro-fetus candidates to support this cycle so she looks for trouble elsewhere.
I kind of thought there was some inherent conflict in the following equation:
constant criticism + zero praise = i take no pleasure in their demise
I guess you have a very nuanced view of the world and I just lack your level of sophistication.
And Chris Smith – it’s not that criticizing media outlets is a bad thing. It’s just that it’s disingenuous to say that you take no joy in the demise of a media outlet after you’ve spent substantial bandwidth bashing that very outlet and the guy who launched it. Also, the statement “an unexamined region is not somewhere i wish to live” is hysterical. Buffalo News, Artvoice, countless town and village newspapers, 3 major TV operations, a few radio stations and, of course, nearly 50 hours of call-in talk radio show time a day is spent focused on the ‘region.’ We’re not suffering from a lack of examination here. A dearth of smart policy decisions maybe, and an unfortunate political circumstance given our standing in the state, but not a lack of fucking media coverage.
I also enjoyed your love it or leave it mantra despite that it doesn’t seem in fitting with your Obama fellatio.
Well I do agree with Mike Hudson in that Wizard is really Wiztard.
His brain is more damaged than Baby Joe’s IMHO.
Joanne – you are a widely considered as a loon and a joke in WNY. So say what you will about the Wiztard, but you are universally accepted as batshit insane.
1. Joanne Capone likes to make jokes about brain damage. Can’t say I’m surprised.
2. Truthiness – can you find one negative thing I’ve ever written about the Niagara Falls Reporter? Here’s the search function. I’m always fascinated by never-commented-before commenters who know oh-so-much about everything. Fascinated.
Wiztard…with your very low IQ…you have an inability to make even reasonable analysis about anything.
Your commentary is a mirror of your limited intellect.
Capone – eat a fetus.
I’m still trying to recover from the phrase” a paper without taint.” Since about 1980 I believe most people have enough tact to avoid using the word taint but I love when they don’t. I guess it taint paper either…
@Truthiness, when I said an unexamined region, I was referring to examining the media outlets and how they cover events. The whole context of what I wrote was about the media outlets around here. Funny, you mention all of these media outlets…
I’ve lived in a lot of places in my 34 years and I have never lived in a region with a lazier media corps than the one we have here in WNY. Whether its sports coverage, enterprise journalism, investigative journalism, or day to day event coverage…not one single outlet gets it right. The Buffalo News is inherently lazy and with the exception of a few quality reporters (Jim Heaney comes to mind) most of them report from their desks. The same can be said about most of the TV stations and radio outlets.
When you receive press releases every day like I do, you start to notice how much of what is reported is recycled from those releases. The Buffalo Police, Fire, and School districts and the city itself run full on media spin machines with marketing, crisis management, and coordinated messaging. The media rarely moves beyond reporting what they are spoonfed in this this town. So, we might have a lot of media outlets, it’s just that none of them really impress me. Do we do a better job at reporting? Not really, since we’ve got other jobs and we rarely “report” in the traditional sense of the word. If I were so empowered to work on reporting all day, every day…I think I could make an online media site credible and competitive as an “enterprise journalism” outlet.
Since we don’t have that kind of time, we comment and opine on their shortcomings and hopefully contribute to a greater discussion.
As for love it or leave it…well, that’s how I feel. If you don’t like what we have to say, you can go sample one of the other media outlets in town. It’s no skin off my nose.
thanks everyone. the one question i have concerning the above is where the “purported demise” of the reporter stuff comes from, as i didn’t see it in bob’s story. we’ve had new stuff online for the past two weeks and will be back on the street seven days from now. i’ve got the money to do it, i’ve got the advertisers, the personnel and the distribution, and i’m going to do it.
ceo’s get fired every day, and the newsrooms of most smaller papers pretty much need revolving doors. what’s going on is a bitter divorce that, unfortunately, was made public by one of the parties in a pathetic attempt to gain some advantage i can’t quite figure out.
The article generated free publicity for The Reporter.
Your right, maybe the Red Coach will start putting coupons back in the reporter now.
To Mike Hudson,
I just read your letter published online in the Niagara Reporter regarding the issues involving you and Bruce.
It is unfortunate that your work and what I surmise was once a very good relationship has come to a bitter end. No one for anyone on your paper I am sure.
I wish you and the paper much success as you continue to carry forward and publish once more next Tuesday.
I have enjoyed reading the paper for some time because you provide a level of journalism in local politics which is needed. Many issues are aired and it is refreshing to get this type of information.
It is my hope that Niagara Falls will one day resurrect itself…a hope that I have had for at least 40 years. So much potential…but so much corruption by petty politicians who have always been more interested in lining their pockets than allowing the potential to be realized.
So keep tilting at windmills and holding the local politicians to a strict accounting.
And Hudson – please keep smearing innocent political candidates for your own monetary gain! You sure are the gem of Niagara Falls!
jen, don’t get me wrong. i’m a firm believer in that, for a person such as myself, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since sunday, and i’ve gotten more than 100 emails at the paper, nearly all being very supportive. it astounded me that the buffalo news would devote 20 precious column inches in their sunday paper to what amounts to a squabble between partners at a business that makes less each year than some self-respecting delicatessens. slow news week, i guess.
mike, i sure hope the red coach resumes its coupon promotion.
and joanne, thanks. we’ll be out again next tuesday.