Local "news" website defies odds ... gets worse

I don't know why I can't just ignore what ails me. But I can't.

Like picking at a festering wound, I typed lockport-ny.com into my web browser to see if the pathetic cermudgeon had actually made any significant updates to his site.

Not really.

Now before you whine that I shouldn't pick on Bob Rooney because he recently recovered from a stroke, don't. Being a stroke victim doesn't entitle you to be an asshole any more than being molested as a child entitles you to take out a school full of children with an AK47.

Anyway, there was one update of note ... a jab at the Union-Sun & Journal.

Here's the text:

Our flag is down but our tree still stands. When the new Alabama owners of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal looked over what they bought they decided to sell out the landmark US&J building at Transit and Summit Streets and move most of operations out of town, the rest into rented space above a drug store. Residents were worried about the fate of this giant tree when the newspaper's property was bought to build a stand-alone drug store. It's several years later and the tree still stands. But the American flag, another display by the former local newspaper, is gone.

Updates. Your editor has been forced to travel out of town on business and the distances are getting longer. Thus I have a bigger domestic backlog when I get back and, of course, up-dates to the Lockport Home Page suffer. I don't have a solution yet but I'm going to try to keep up publication. We have enough money to continue at least until October.

Now, you should all know that I've had my disagreements with the Union-Sun & Journal ... and moreso with it's parent companies, Greater Niagara News and Corporate Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI). I still believe that I was screwed by Terry Shaw becuase I wouldn't publicly fellate him. But that's another point.

Thing about it is, the US&J might not be perfect, but they do pretty well with the limited resources they have. They cover local news. They cover local sports. They publish local letters to the editor. They ARE a local newspaper. In addition to the traditional stuff, they have a pretty decent website at LockportJournal.com, with story archives, video, podcasts, and a forum that makes the old forum at ScottLeffler.com look ... well ... like crap.

Note in Rooney's post, though, how he goes immediately from trashing to local paper to giving excuses why his own POS web site isn't up to snuff ... and then to backhandedly asking for more money.

Mr. Rooney has previously claimed that his costs of running his website are something like $5,000 a year. That really caught my eye ... and the math just didn't add up. So about six month ago, I offered Rooney a slot on my show. We'd do a fundraiser to help raise money for Lockport-NY.com ... if he'd tell me what the money was really for. Needless to say, he hasn't gotten ahold of me.

The worst part of this is that some people trust and believe in this snake oil salesman.

I hope you aren't one of them.

Currently listening to: All WNY Radio By All WNY Radio Release date: 01 April, 2006