He is sorely missed. Many of you who frequent the halls of Northampton County government are sure to remember Al Recker. He covered county government and the courts for The Bethlehem Globe Times, earning a reputation as a fair reporter who was willing to dig and find the answers. After The Globe Times was sold to The Express Times, Al was eventually laid off. these days he's semi-retired, though he does a bit of free-lancing now and then for the Press papers.
Yesterday, Al was sent to cover a news conference concerning quadruple murderer Michael Ballard. As other reporters prepared their brand new iPhones and fancy cameras, or stumbled in after the news conference was nearly over, Al sat there with his shorthand notebook and actually listened to what DA John Morganelli had to say. Other than Reilly Yates, who covers the courts for the Morning Call, Recker had the most penetrating questions.
He is missed.
5 comments:
Yes, he is missed. He is one of the good guys!
Jerry Seyfried says
Al Recker is the fairest reporter that I ever encountered in all my years of service to the County. Above all else he was a great father. He worked at the Court House eight hours a day and then covered evening events including all County Council Meetings. He is knowledgeable about County Government and covered the former County Commissioners meetings before Home Rule Government. If you ever have the chance, talk with him about County Government and his experiences with some of the greatest events to take place in the County. He will keep you entertained for hours. Northampton county misses you Al. God Bless and Good Health.
With a bare-knuckle style, the Pulitzer-prize winning Globe-Times, and its longtime Northampton County "courthouse reporter" Al Recker, always a gentleman, symbolized a golden age of locally owned newspapers. Thanks for reminding readers of that lost era of community journalism, before the internet and 24-hour cable TV news replaced the substantive reporting of the printed page with click-bait headlines. Here's wishing Mr. Recker all the best as he continues a labor of love, reporting the news, serving his readers, and asking the right questions. This post about Mr. Recker brings to mind another icon from a different medium from those days, recently deceased WKAP-AM reporter Jerry Duckett, whose legwork brought us local news on the radio.
'always a gentleman'
That's is a bit much. Good reporter though.
1:10 p.m.: I bet no one will ever call you a gentleman.
Post a Comment