No reporter from The Express Times was at last night's meeting of Northampton County Council. The paper also missed a committee hearing earlier that day as well as three committee hearings the day before. The biggest county story missed by the paper is Judge Craig Dally's announcement of a Drug Court, starting April 2.
Part of the reason for this is that the newspaper recently lost Tom Shortell, who is now working for The Morning Call. But it is still very irresponsible for a news organization to allow the largest government in Northampton County go without coverage for a week. The paper had ample notice of Tom's departure and could even have watched and reported on the meetings online.
When the paper pens editorials condemning the public for its apathy, it needs to look in the mirror.
32 comments:
I was wondering how long it would take another news media to rescue Shortell from ET. Shortell has always provided excellent coverage of local politics and he actually seems to proof read what he writes before publishing.
Hopefully they replace him very soon, and don't take Brown's position on filling vacancies.
We're left with a bottom feeding blogger to dispense the news to us. One who just won a Major award.
@10:16AM I agree 100%.
They had to send three people to Pittsburgh to cover the Lafayette-Villanova debacle.
They probably figured they'd just purloin your coverage, sans attribution. Otherwise, no news is good news, right? Shortell is very good.
i'm afraid the et is like old soldiers: they are fading away.
Get use to it. Local news will be covered only by blogs and a few facebook pages
Tom Shortell should be writing for Mother Jones a publication that mirrors his libtard tendencies.
MOLON LABE
Appalling.
12:16 --- you too.
E-T has become a waste of ink. No longer do they report on any worth while local news. All or mostly aP or pUI copy. Monday's paper is the real joke. 12 pgs. on average and 2/3 is advertising.Time to drop this rag.
Yer I said pui - it stinks
Will miss Tom and it is more of the same for the Express-Times. Paper is imploding but must say..local coverage in the Slate Belt by John Best has been pretty good considering. He even does some investigative stuff on occasion. hope they leave him here..
Best does a pretty good job. I believe he is still a freelancer. If he is interested maybe they will hire him to fill Shortell's slot. Really not much left of value down there.
They really don't care about the print edition anymore that is obvious. There are various places where you can get copies for free or just read it online at no charge. Get what you pay for though.
They still have very good reporters and editors who try. But there are just not enough of them. This criticism really applies to both papers.
O'Hare of course you are schilling for a job with them on a freelance basis. Hopefully they know you well enough to stay away form your biased "news" stores.
Bernie, no offense, the folks that are still left at the E-T are there for a reason. They wouldn't be hired anywhere else.
Just stating the facts, man.
4:38, it's called "shilling" and you are incorrect. I prefer freelancing for a weekly, and am too high strung to play nice. I would consider freelancing for sports, but my editor tells me I already get in enough trouble. Not everyone is like you. Incidentally, I have been slamming the paper, both here and in emails to Thor editors, in recent weeks. Not exactly the way to get picked up as a freelancer.
It's a shame that E-T is headed south. It's a real struggle in the papers to even staff a reporter pool.
Is 4:38 the "mentor?" I thought he believed the E-T was involved in the Martin conspiracy that literally everyone in the Valley, other than he and his wife, are complicit in?
I don't know if that was the mentor or one of my other fans. The Mentor has managed to completely marginalize himself. He is no longer a factor in anything.
I was partly responsible for the tragedy involving the BM's daughter. I taught RL in high school. BM would surely hold that against me.
Too bad my pic isn't on the web - it could be put on BM's sidebar rouge's gallery.
Jim Deegan doing the weather stories. Last one out turn off the lights!
Another story that was missed is that at last night's meeting it was announced that the losses at Gracedale are increasing - up to about $10m a year. Shortell wrote a good article about it for his new employer.
E-T has some very good reporters. But nearly to a person, their editors are atrocious. Tony Rhodin is a disgrace. He's been at this since he was a kid and is no better. His stories are confusing and incomplete. His grammar and construction are horrible. He's certainly not his mom's son in the journalism department. Editors become editors by hanging around. If you've hung around Easton that long, it's because you're not very good.
You are right about TR but the reporters that remain are pretty bad too. They dont care about the print product one iota. They try every clickbait trick in the book (shy of actually providing strong content) to get you to read the online content.
Will the online ad revenue be enough to keep the lights on when that is all that is left? I guess we will find out.
Can't wait to see all of those prom and graduation photo galleries that are right around the for eorner.
While Tony's writing is bad, his videos are downright creepy
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2014/11/weather_good_news_the_cold_wil.html
Their failure to cover the Gracedale black hole shocker is incredible. Warner seems unable to comprehend basic math. He's either incredibly stupid or in embarrassing denial. The idea of an endowment is a good one. It'll prove just how popular Gracedale is by asking those who oppose its sale to put their money where their mouths are. If they fail, it's time to sell.
They probably have some kind of bizarre rationale for not reporting on meetings that are viewed online. (Like it's better not to cover them at all than to rely on modern technology.) I always liked Tom Shortell's stories. He must have had his reasons for leaving ET, but I feel bad for him that it was for The Morning Call... I hope for his sake that he's at least getting more money. Journalists everywhere have few options anymore, but in the L.V. it's even worse than in many other places (New York and Philly, for example). The comparison to "old soldiers" is ridiculous. Old soldiers still have their honor. There is little honor in the world of corporate news.
I have nothing against Tony Rhodin, nut he is one of the people who "liked" Sal Panto's post slamminb me. He is on the ET Editorial board, is supposedly a journalist and is supposedly part of a group that claims objectivity. He can't honestly make that claim if he participates in Panto's bash brigade. The ET's newest policy appears to be to provoke and encourage trolls. They are eventually going to get sued over this practice and lose.
LVR is now and always was the only investigative press outlet in the Easton area. Freedom of the press is a dying concept. The majors have been bought and sold. Advertising dollars and not facts drive what's left of the legit., above ground press.
Bernie is Barron unopposed in the general election?
Bernie
Self-defeating behavior. Eastonians must be stunned at the sale of the Express-Times building. Very sad.
Print a paper that provides no local news and sales drop and eventually the paper closes. Hire even freelancers, pay them a decent assignment wage, publish the local news stories and sales increase. Not rocket science.
I think it is unfortunate and compromises the paper when it rents from one the biggest developer in Easton while selling to another.
They are too busy posting names and salaries of school teachers. Maybe they are compiling a list for ISIL.
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