Rodino Dies

Peter Rodino, long-time Congressman from Newark's North Ward who chaired the House Judiciary Committee hearing that produced articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974, died eight days ago in West Orange (where, for some reason, he had moved at some point — white flight?). When he left Congress (after 40 years!), he worked in Newark as a professor at the Seton Hall Law School, where viewings have been held yesterday and today. His funeral service is to be held tomorrow at Saint Lucy's in the North Ward, not far from the Cathedral.
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I was surprised that none of the biographies I saw in researching this blog entry mentioned the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the thing I knew him best for, from years of working for lawyers. On the event of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of that act, Mr. Rodino, then 92, sent a message to the Federal Trade Commission in which he said:

Together, we stopped "midnight mergers." I'm sure I don't have to tell the FTC about the harm that some of these mergers could cause — the harm could be irreparable. The government spent years in litigation fighting just one merger. But even when it won, competition was often impossible to restore. The merged company already had closed plants, cut jobs and scrambled assets. Consumers ended up the losers, left paying higher prices. That had to be corrected.

Hart-Scott-Rodino was intended to give the anti-trust agencies two things: critical information about a proposed merger and time to analyze that information and prepare a case, if necessary. From what I hear, the legislation absolutely has transformed merger enforcement. Competition, as well as the consumer, has benefitted.

Rodino was elected to Congress 20 times. Toward the end of his tenure, when the demographics of his district had changed, there were calls for him to step aside to let a black man take his place. When he finally retired, my current Congressman, Donald Payne, took his place, which I did not know. Nor did I know that Payne was the first black Congressman from New Jersey.
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Altho Peter Rodino moved out of Newark, first to Maplewood and then to West Orange, he retained important connections to the city, and of course much of Essex County is just Greater Newark, much affected by the dynamics of the center.
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Channel 7's biography says:

His congressional mementos and papers are stored and displayed at the Peter W. Rodino Jr. Law Library at Seton Hall Law School [in Downtown Newark]. The Rodino Institute for Criminal Justice at Jersey City State College also is named after him, as is the federal office building in Newark.

Rodino's entry in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress contains what I found a puzzling reference to his having "graduated from the University of Newark and from the New Jersey Law School". Neither of those entities exists today.
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It turns out that the New Jersey Law School was once a separate institution but was merged in 1935 with four other institutions to create the University of Newark, and 11 years later (1946), the state legislature merged the University of Newark into Rutgers, as its Newark Campus.
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Governor McGreevey's proposal to merge Rutgers, NJIT, and UMDNJ was stopped by objections from various quarters. But maybe that larger consolidation will also eventually go thru. Or maybe the Newark Campus of Rutgers, NJIT, UMDNJ Newark and even Seton Hall Law School and Essex County College can merge into a new University of Newark. There's no urgency to either change.

Oh No He Didn't!

Last nite, David Letterman made a very unwelcome remark about Newark.
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Helen Hunt was his guest, and she was relating a story about her vacation in Hawaii. Her boyfriend was snoring, so she sent him to sleep in another room, where a rat crawled into bed with him and went to "the worst place in the world" (for a rat to bite a man). Letterman, playing coy, quipped (approximate quote), "When you say 'worst place in the world', one generally thinks 'Newark'." That's the way I remember it. The "Wahoo Gazette" on Letterman's own website puts it this way: "Dave says when Helen first said that, he thought she was talking about Newark."
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I didn't laugh.
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If I were the Mayor of Newark — or even a Special Assistant to the Mayor — I would issue an invitation to Letterman to a VIP tour of Newark and urge him to cross the river and bring his show to our fair city for a nite or week of performances from NJPAC. He could have as guests, celebs born or raised in Newark. He might emerge from that experience with a radically changed view of Newark.
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As it is, the remark seems not to have raised an eyebrow nor provoked any reaction from the Mayor, Star-Ledger, News 12 — anybody in position to do anything about reversing the bad impression Letterman's careless remark has contributed to.
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So I sent the following email to the Late Show by feedback form at their website.

Dave's remark about Newark being "the worst place is the world" was very far from funny, and may have harmed the city's revitalization by reinforcing antique and inaccurate misimpressions of the city. I invite someone from the Late Show's staff to visit the website "Resurgence City: Newark USA" (http://members.aol.com/ResurgenceCity) and look at the over 70 photos on that site and many more on linked webpages to see if they depict "the worst place in the world". Perhaps Dave should take his show across the river for a tour of Newark and tape a day or five of shows out of what Clive Barnes called "The nation's most glamorous theater", Prudential Hall in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark. He could fill those shows with celebrity guests who were born in or have major connections with Newark, like Shaquille O'Neal, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifah, Tisha Campbell, Savion Glover, and Whitney Houston. Perhaps at the end of such an experience, Dave -- and the Nation -- will have a greater appreciation for Gotham's little brother across the Hudson. Cheers.

Boycott WNET!

Channel 13 is assigned by the FCC to Newark, New Jersey but was long ago stolen by New Yorkers, who moved pretty much all functions and studios out of Newark and stopped paying any significant attention to Newark in particular and New Jersey more generally. Altho station-identification graphics broadcast on Thirteen do mention Newark — in the form of briefly showing "WNET/Newark", then fading to "WNET/New York" — the station's website shows only "New York", as do, apparently, its membership card and all credits in programming it produces. Moreover, all the images shown behind its station-identification between programs are of New York City scenes. No Newark or New Jersey scenes whatsoever, not our magnificent Cathedral, day or nite; not the Branch Brook Park Cherry Blossom Festival; not the Downtown Newark skyline reflected in the Passaic River; not the Newark Museum nor Public Library nor anything at all, ever.
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Why should New Jerseyans support a New York station?
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If WNET wants to represent itself as a New York station, it should apply to the FCC for permission simply to move the station to New York City. But perhaps they've tried that already, and the FCC refused, since New Jersey is a grossly underserved population equal in size to New York City's but with few TV or radio stations directed to its needs.
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Since WNET is assigned to Newark, it is not entitled to represent itself as a New York station — ever! — any more than it would be entitled to represent itself as a Paris, London, or Beijing station.
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New Jerseyans generally, and Newarkers in particular, should STOP sending money to WNET until and unless it stops calling itself a New York station and acknowledges everywhere and at all times that it is a Newark, New Jersey station.
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Besides, WNET may well be the worst television station, with resources, on planet Earth. 90% of its schedule is reruns, and during begathons, pretty much 100% of its programming is reruns. It is notorious for monomania, showing hours and hours of the same subject matter in a single day or nite — all of a multipart series in a single day, or a 3-hour Great Performances concert twice in the same nite. They show the same few movies over and over and over without mercy, and the movies they choose aren't even the best ever made.
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It also seems to believe that the laws about obscenity don't apply to it, that somehow the PBS badge is a license to broadcast words and images forbidden to mere mortals in commercial broadcasting.
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WNET is a snotty, snobby, dreary piece of crap that should be brought back down to Earth, made to obey the laws of obscenity and to serve the community to which the Federal Communications Commission assigned it: Newark, New Jersey.
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WNET is, right now, in the midst of one of its begathons and, true to form, filling its schedule with excess, at least on the weekend. Yesterday, it showed the entire multipart documentary series Broadway: The American Musical — at least twice, in a row! Hour after hour after hour given over to one topic. It could be worse. Sometimes they give over hour after hour to the charlatan New Age guru Wayne Dyer, who tells people that they can have and achieve anything they "intend"! Here's a quote from his website:

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer explores intention as an all-pervading force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place. Intention, he explains, is not something you do, but an energy you're a part of. Not only do you originate from the field of intention, but if you align yourself to it, your desires become fulfilled and you find yourself at peace.

Madness. Utter, lunatic bull. But WNET broadcasts this crap over and over without mercy, for hour after hour during its major "pledge breaks" (begathons).
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WNET needs to be chastened. New Jersey corporations, foundations, organizations, and individuals should stop supporting WNET completely, until it completely changes its behavior and admits that it is a Newark station. I originally thought it would be okay for it to call itself "WNET/Newark-New York City", but I am so angry at its refusal to do that on its membership card and in the credits it shows for programs it produces, that I have become adamant: there must be no "New York" reference in identifying the station whatsoever! WNET is assigned to Newark, New Jersey, not to any part of New York, which is a state as well as a city. The state to which WNET is assigned is New Jersey, not New York, and to the extent that "New York" refers to the state WNET is assigned to, it is not just a lie but also an offense to all New Jerseyans.
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If the FCC won't let the current license owners move the license to New York, WNET must stop claiming to be a New York station, and tell the world that it is a Newark station. If it refuses, New Jerseyans inside and outside Newark should see themselves as insulted.
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New Jersey's not good enuf for WNET? Well, then, New Jersey money isn't good enuf for them either.