Last time I was at Allentown's Scottish Rite Center for a news conference with Republican Lehigh County Commissioner candidates, Dean Browning met me at the door and ushered me into the GOP's sanctum sanctorum. Once the blindfold came off, there were Primo hoagies and bottled water. I stuffed the ones I could not eat into my pockets and laptop case, and sold them later that day to Pawlowski headquarters, making a tidy profit of $3.25.Naturally, when I received an invitation to another news conference yesterday, I immediately accepted. But yesterday was a bad day. Thanks to bridgework along the Seventh Street exit, Route 22 was clogged like my arteries, all the way from Airport Road. To make matters worse, once I arrived at the Scottish Rite Center, the damn door was locked. Now there was an intercom next to the door, but everytime I punched in a number, all I heard was a voice as garbled as a McDonald's drive-thru.
"Hello?"
"Mrrph. Hmmnn tee dooor. Hmmmnn tee dooor, OK?"
I had exchanges like that for a good half hour. Finally, I whipped out my cell phone, called the Scottish Rite Cathedral and told them I was the frickin' Pope. But I forgot Scots hate the pope. "You'll never get in, you bloody papist!" Fortunately, I saw a code inspector driving by and told him the place had old smoke detectors. City officials quickly broke the door down.
Unfortunately, I arrived just as Percy Dougherty, Bob Smith and Mike Welsh were finishing their remarks. Fortunately, they had a nice folder containing their remarks. But I still felt pretty bad. You see, aside from me, the only person covering this event for the media was Ken Petrini.
Percy Dougherty is the Chairman of Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners. Bob Smith is President of Allentown's School Board. Mike Welsh is a successful businessman who just waged a courageous state house campaign against popular Jennifer Mann. Whether you vote for them or not, these are three very interesting leaders whose voices should be heard. One of them chairs the largest legislative body in the Lehigh Valley. Yet, neither The Morning Call nor Channel 69 covered this conference. They missed Percy Dougherty's claim that he's been kept in the dark about the budget to be unveiled on Thursday, something that Ken covered extensively in his report. They missed Bob Smith's announcement that Allentown School District is going to have to borrow money in September, something I'll be noting later. They missed how these candidates feel about the Lehigh Valley's state legislators, and the possibility of yet another clean sweep movement.
I know these reporters are stretched very thin right now, are working double beats in many cases, and have to prioritize what they cover. But what good is a democracy when we don't know how candidates come down on specific issues? That's the inevitable consequence of the demise of our newspaper industry. Doesn't this benign neglect encourage apathy?
The MSM covers very little of what the Commissioners do. When I ran for commissioner back in 2003, we had no less than three debates between 12 republican candidates in the primary and at least four additional debates with the four democratic nominees for the general election. In fact, one reporter left early in one debate to go home and watch the Yankees! Before he left, we asked if there were any questions from the press, and the reporter said that there were no questions. Sounds like much of the same.
ReplyDeleteWas Candidate Creighton there for our district? Were there any dems, or was this just a GOP function?
ReplyDeletethis wasn't news. it was a partisan press conference. partisan press conferences go uncovered all the time. if this was a debate, I'd be a little miffed as a voter, but as it stands, it was a poorly executed attempt to use the state budget impass and it's impacts (already covered by the morning call for weeks) to gain attention for these candidates' campaign. If Percy really wanted to draw attention to it, he would work with the county executive to do a joint sit down with a reporter. instead he goes with his partisan team and gets no attention.
ReplyDeletethey used an over-covered topic without offering a compelling new reason for MSM to cover it. There was no conflict (what, do their opponents support the budget impasse?) The fact that neither the mcall or channel 69 showed up only confirms this.
If anything, this makes the candidates look like rookie candidates, although that is an insider game that voters don't care about.
This was a partisan news conference. No Dems appeared. But how are we to haver a democracy if the media does not tell us where candidates stand on the issues. That actually is news. And as it happens, Smith's remarks about ASD and Dougherty's talk about the budget also qualified as news. The MSM usually does send someone to cover even partisan news conferences. Before hiring Darryl, the MC even failed to send reporters to cover LC Comm'rs meetings on two occasions. That's only the largest legislative body in the Lehigh Valley. I think they are stretched thin.
ReplyDeleteJust because the Republicans don't have jobs and do this lets repeat crap over and and over again horse and pony show, why show legitimate press cover it.
ReplyDeleteThis was a campaign performance and they already had one. The press gave them coverage for one and that was enough.
Get a job!
"That actually is news."
ReplyDeleteThe people who make that determination disagreed... and they count. So keep raving.
They made a mistake.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with the MSM.
ReplyDeleteBTW, does anybody have the recipe for Hess's famous strawberry pie?
YOu should have told the MC that there was a stray escaped kennel dog inside...they would have been there in a flash.
ReplyDeleteYou are mistaken this was not News, just a campaign press conference. The real media made the right call.
ReplyDelete