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Monday, May 19, 2008

Morning Call Refuses to Spin Along with POM

Early this month, Pam Varkony criticized an "independent third party" report justifying Sam Bennett's $110,000 salary as executive director at nonprofit Properties of Merit. This "independent" is one of the sources who was consulted before that salary was ever set. In a July op-ed, board prez Jim Molchany mentions that - twice.

When I interviewed Bennett, she told me the original allegations "were completely unfounded. The political reporter of The Morning Call writes an investigative piece based on lies, half-truths and innuendo." She stressed this consultant served no role in the compensation committee that set her salary.

At the time, I asked The Morning Call why it never reported Bennett's exoneration, even if it is questionable. The paper's original, front page story, did hurl some serious accusations. The paper declined comment.

But over the weekend, that political reporter is at it again, analyzing the report, noting that it appears to contradict itself when it concludes no IRS guidelines were violated. The only thing positive from this consultant is that POM acted in "good faith," but that's a subjective call.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 19, 2008 at 2:37 PM

    Retired ASD teachers here.

    Ya know, Bernie. It's a shame we can no longer count upon "our own Fourth Estate (Morning Call)" to protect the interests of it's service area population.

    For some reason, the current Morning Call leadership thinks it is their calling to SHAPE and BE the Lehigh Valley consensus (although, a consensus as they want to see it).

    I don't have as much a problem with the Morning Call being the consensus of the local populace so long as I can trust that which they put forth to be what they (Morning Call) actually discovered, then described with balance.

    THIS IS CLEARLY NOT THE CASE!

    I always thought I was paying for delivery of news, not promotion of agenda. The Morning Call is on a certain sociological mission. I RESENT THAT!

    (but I do use the coupons)

    ---

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bill VillaMay 19, 2008 at 3:10 PM

    Retired ASD Teacher is my idol ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 19, 2008 at 6:56 PM

    I kind of wondered why Hillary's landslide 30 point win in WV was on the third page of Mcall

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 19, 2008 at 10:02 PM

    The Morning Call has been an enabler for the destruction of Allentown for too long. They never printed a good word for our last competent mayor and have spent the bulk of the last eight years painting a rosy picture of the back to back incompetence of Afflerbach and Pawlowski. Lives have been lost, quality of life has been diminished, opportunities squandered, talent wasted, and wealth displaced to other locations as a result. One might think they would feel some sense of shame.



    Scott Armstrong

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  5. Bill VillaMay 20, 2008 at 10:12 AM

    Feeling shame (or compassion, or empathy, or a sense of civic duty) requires humanity. The Morning Call doesn't have any ...

    ReplyDelete

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