Last week, our friend Tom Christy, who hosts a call-in program on LCTV, Channel 22 here, found himself with a problem. His scheduled guest that night, State Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, called in sick just before the broadcast, leaving him with a half-hour of live airtime to fill.
If you're not familiar with the show, Christy usually covers Albany and the county legislature. "Legislative Journal Live," it's called. A few years ago, my partner, Bruce Battaglia, appeared on the program to tout our new business.
Anyway, with no guest, Christy threw open his call-in lines to anybody who wanted to talk about anything. A number of people wanted to talk about Mayor Irene Elia, and some of them cited articles that have appeared in this paper as the basis for their comments.
In the interest of full disclosure, just a word here about my relationship with Christy and the Adelphia Cable Network. I personally met Christy once, at a public meeting, and he asked me to be on his show. I told him no. I don't do that stuff. I've written a number of pieces critical of Adelphia over the years, and have the letters from the company's local honcho, Lou Paonessa, to prove it.
Among the issues raised by the callers on the live telecast were the mayor's hosting of a gin-soaked party at City Hall, her idiotic rejection of a deal that would have made the city's decrepit Niagara Street parking ramps money-makers for the first time in their history and the generally poor relations between her office, the Seneca Nation of Indians and other developers in the city.
City Hall sources tell me the mayor felt "set up" by the program, called Adelphia and demanded equal time. This despite the fact that her "Inside City Hall" program -- the title of which she shamelessly stole from my old Niagara Gazette column -- is shown ad nauseam on Adelphia's public access channels.
Her paranoia is such that Elia accused the station of staging the calls. Meaning no disrespect to Tom Christy, but hardly anyone watches that show anyway. When I turn it on in the house, the Redhead departs to the bedroom to watch "Seinfeld" reruns on a Canadian station.
An amicable agreement was reached. So, on Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m., the little ex-nun who couldn't is scheduled to be fielding live questions. I don't think she knows what she's in for. Callers might want to ask, for example:
Talk about must-see TV! Children could even call in and ask why their daddy doesn't have a job. The entertainment value of seeing the mayor react to questions like these on live television will be tremendous. I know I'll be watching -- and taping. My only fear is that she'll chicken out at the last minute and cancel her appearance.
Elia has become an expert at padding rooms, and I have no doubt that, when Tom Christy's broadcast airs a week from Thursday, she will have Paul Colangelo's wife, Nancy Joseph's friends and numerous other people who depend on her for a living calling in.
But her repeated and often successful attempts to intimidate the local media should be seen for what they are. Niagara Gazette Publisher Steve Braver has his head so far up her butt, I don't think his feet touch the ground.
Irene Elia is the lousiest in a series of lousy mayors this apparently godforsaken city has had. The Republicans don't like her, the Democrats don't like her and, frankly, neither do I.
Hopefully, come November, this will all be just another bad memory.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 18 2003 |