The James Brown Commentary

The last few years will no doubt be remembered as one of the oddest stretches in the history of western civilization. 

So I forgive you in advance if you've missed one of the weirder happenings: apparently UFOs, maybe aliens, maybe not, exist so says the New York Times, 60 Minutes, NBC News and the US Government over the last few years. Congress is openly investigating flying saucers or something like that. 

I even asked US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about it when I was reporting in Rochester, NY. She claims her office has been approached by many members of the military who are concerned with what these vessels can do.

While the senator would not say that she believes in alien life she did say that we need to get to the bottom of where they're from whether it's somewhere on earth or not. 

I agree. 

The folks over at News Nation do too. On Monday night, they broadcasted an interview between award winning journalist Ross Coulthart and Daniel Grush, an Air Force veteran, former member of that task force and veteran of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency turned whistleblower who claims that the government is hiding recovered alien crafts.

Ross Coulthart: When you say crash retrieval, what do you mean?

Daniel Grush: These are retrieving non-human origin, technical vehicles. You know, call it spacecraft, if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed.

Coulthart: We have spacecraft from another species.

Grush: We do? Yeah.

Coulthart: Know how many?

Grush: Quite a number.

Coulthart: You're kidding.

Grush: No. I thought it was totally nuts. And I thought at first I was being deceived. It was a ruse. People started confiding in me. They approached me. I have plenty of current former senior intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that vital to me. They were a part of a program.

They named the program. I've never heard of it. And they they told me, based on their oral testimony, and they provided me documents and other other proof that there was, in fact, a program that the UAP task force was not read into.

I don't know where the truth lies but Fox Mulder said it best in the 90s, I want to believe

Previously on the commentary

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Chuck Todd, the moderator of NBC’s Meet The Press, is stepping down. Political Correspondent Kristen Welker is taking over in September. 

At first blush, it seemed like an odd decision. We’re one year away from a presidential election, when the Chuck Todds of the world take center stage. Going with a rookie in that big a spot seems suspect. Todd says he's leaving for family reasons and to work on passion projects but I have my doubts.

My guess is that the powers that be wanted to shake things up due to his sinking ratings and because the concept of the Sunday morning political show is dying.  

Growing up as a geeky media kid I idolized Tim Russert, or his folksy public persona at least. We’re from the same part of the country. When he died in the late aughts, the facade of what these shows were to me shattered. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. 

The truth is Sunday morning political shows aren't for you and me, and they likely never were. Politicians go on Meet The Press and Face The Nation and such to message the press, the political class and strangely enough, themselves.

That's a small audience to start. Add the fact that all media is getting smaller and I'm left to wonder why these shows exist at all. During his announcement Sunday, Chuck Todd said part of the answer was at the movies.

“We've successfully expanded what makes Meet The Press special on Sundays to make it special no matter the topic or where it airs. Or when it airs,” said Todd. “That includes our annual Meet the Press Film Festival as well, which has somehow become one of the most important festivals for Oscar buzz and nominations for news driven documentaries.”

I doubt I'm the only one that missed  the Meet The Press film festival but I can't blame them for trying. 

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

The prime time tv season has ended and as usual the top shows tell us much about the few things left that Americans share. 

Just three series averaged more than 10 million viewers; two of them are NFL broadcasts. 18 million people watched Sunday Night Football on NBC and 10 million people watched Monday Night Football on ESPN. 

What's the other show in the top three: Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone. Ahhh, nothing brings Americans together like sports and guns.

These numbers are half what I remember twenty years ago and well below a decade or so. 

So where have all the viewers gone? The obvious place is streaming: from Netflix to Disney plus. And how many people are watching those platforms is kept purposely opaque.

These outlets who know precisely what and how long we are watching them release minutes instead of viewership estimates like Nielsen has traditionally.

For instance, Netflix claims that between May 15th and 21st 2023 roughly 82 billion minutes of Queen Charlotte, the spinoff Shonda Rimes’ period drama Bridgerton were watched.

Why? It's about control of course. 

If you're the only one who knows how many people saw something, no one can dispute your proclamation. Several companies including Nielsen are trying anyway because 

if the actors, producers, and directors need to know exactly how popular their projects are because these streaming companies are using this unknown to give them the upper hand in renegotiations.

Or as TV executive Don Ohlmeyer once said, “The answer to all your questions is money.”

I got up early on a Wednesday morning to race to Walmart. It was an attempt to dodge crowds. It didn't work. 

My mother gave me a shopping list.

In her mercurial manner she asked for basics: Secret Deodorant, Kleenex, lens cleaners, and wipes for her hands and such. I think it was hard for her. She's a proud person who doesn't ask for much, even when should.

When I walked in the lobby of the hospital,  I saw a woman at the front desk that I've literally seen more than a dozen times in the last month. She’s thin, white with stringy blonde hair and always looks a little sad. 

She knew my name and my mom’s name and  immediately scribbled out my visitor pass. 

She said, “You look tired.”

“Can't help that,” I responded.

She handed me the pass and before I walked away she asked.

“Is today the big day?”

“Yes. Ma is scheduled for rehab,” I said. 

“Great,” she said with a smile. “I don't ever want to see you here again.”

We laughed.

 “Deal,” I said.

We shook hands.

Because medicine in 2023 is medicine in 2023, she went to rehab two days later.

I'd like to thank so many of you for taking the time to call, email, and text me. It’s one of those incredible, increasingly rare moments when you realize how nice people can be. 

These days I often forget that can happen. 

It's also a reminder of so many things. Above I'll try my damndest to pay this kindness forward.

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

The Food and Drug Administration has apparently given clearance for Elon Musk’s Neuralink to test its brain chips in humans. 

In a jubilant tweet from Neuralink said the FDA’s decision "represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people.” Musk previously claimed that his chips could help people with  neurological problems like Parkinson’s disease.

The tweet also claims that and that recruiting hasn’t started and thank god for that because I have oh so many questions about this like:

Who is volunteering to do this? I could see, maybe  if you’re comatose, but comatose people don’t make many decisions unless it’s covered in a living will of some sort. So I'll sharpen the point: who is volunteering to do this, that is for lack of a better term: normal? And how much are they being paid? I’d bet it’s a pretty penny. 

Perhaps I’m strange but I wait to update the software on my phone because bugs happen. I’d hate to have a software bug in my brain because its my brain of course.

And  how would you react if your loved one  told you “I’m volunteering to have an experimental brain chip inserted in me?” 

And after hearing that, who says “Awesome Bob?” or ”Oh great Kim!”  Instead of, “Are you kidding me?”

 If the folks at Neuralink are listening I’m first in line to interview these characters because they would instantly be the most interesting people in the world.

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

The worst kept secret in politics is out, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he's running for president. In the days that followed, it was how DeSantis chose to do it that got headlines.

The governor used  a twitter space which is basically a live podcast with an audience. It was botch filled to start: twitter’s servers crashed and there were some moments of weird feedback.

Our press by and large dogpiled DeSantis for daring to make the announcement on social media of all places, with outlets like CNN claiming that he gave up a mass audience for twitter instead doing it on their air.

A New York Times editorial claimed the glitches shrank his reach. Other pundits and outlets strangely critiqued DeSantis for reading his remarks because after all no politicians or broadcasters do that.

Perhaps they all have good points but they left out some crucial facts about it too.

Whether you like DeSantis or lump him, we must admit that it's remarkable for any politician to crash the servers of any social network. And the interest has not ended there. Within 72 hours, more than 4,000,000 people listened to the space.

By the way, nothing on cable news was watched by that many people last week.

Glitches or no glitches is it's clear that millions of Americans want to hear him out

Why would a little feedback stop that? 

Will they vote for him? I don't know. We’ll find out. But stranger things have happened.

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

The long struggling Cineworld, the company that owns Regal Theaters, is expected to exit bankruptcy in July. According to deadline.com, shareholders will be wiped out. This is the latest death rattle of the current version of one of the great American pastimes: watching movies together in public.

 In the early 20th century, picture houses punctuated urban cores and main streets, giving young couples gorgeous buildings to watch films, news and make out in. 

As times changed, so did our theaters, they morphed into drive-ins on the fringes of town, perfect for mid twentieth century make out sessions. 

By the time I was a teenager, in the 1990s, most of those theaters were long gone. The remaining buildings became novelties, homes of Oscar bait movies or nostalgic double features. 

The movie theaters of my era were less romantic. They were giant concrete boxes in the corners of suburban malls or plazas surrounded by endless reams of parking full of kids and adults alike, looking for a place to go make out. 

Many of these buildings lay fallow, as COVID-19 and the great American pause of the last few years washed over us all, the flaws in their business model were revealed. They fell apart at freefall speed. A lot of these buildings are rotting now, some with signs that still say temporarily closed.

But I don’t expect theaters to disappear completely.  I think my generation and the ones that follow will do what previous generations did, we’ll evolve these businesses.  After all, the next round of kids will need a place to go make out.

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

Bruce Arians was never the guy.  

For most of his career, he was what Martin Sheen once described on The West Wing as “the guy, that the guy depends on.”

In his 40-year career, he became the ultimate journeyman offensive mind in football. His specialty was molding quarterbacks. 

He coached the likes of Carson Palmer, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck and Ben Roethlisberger. He was passed over for NFL head coaching jobs into his late 50s but when he got the chance, he won coach of the year twice and the super bowl in Tampa with Tom Brady.

In the last pages of autobiography, The Quarterback Whisperer: How to Build an Elite NFL Quarterback he laid out his theory of leadership. 

On the college level, he said, “coaching is about molding teenagers into men and leading them to be positive members of society.” 

In the NFL, on the hand, you’re dealing with adults, and he said, “that’s about building relationships.”

“If a player had a bad game,” He wrote, "I'm going to give him a beer and a big sincere hug. You see, I know they tried. They gave it their best shot. Sometimes you come up short.”

He continued, “A big part of me is rooted in the belief that you must take chances in life and in football. If you don’t try to take shots down the field, you’re never going to hit a great shot down the field.  You gotta live smart. And never live scared. I call plays and coach quarterbacks the same way. No risk it. No biscuit.”

Now that’s a philosophy I can get behind. 

Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Or leave me a message at 1-585-484-0339

Lessons learned from a strange few weeks.