Jennings Gives Lehigh Valley Discourse an Enema

Moshe O'Hare

Earlier this month, I taped a program with Trump apologist Michael Molovinsky and host Alan Jennings for WDIY-88.1FM.The show is called Lehigh Valley Discourse and airs every Thursday at 6 pm. It touts itself as "[p]rovocative, informative and newsworthy," but is none of those things. It is instead a snooze-fest with boring hosts and terrible guests. The opening music is totally out-of-sync with the Lehigh Valley and sounds like something you'd hear on an elevator, not a radio station that prides itself, and for good reason, on excellent music. And who the hell calls conversation "discourse?" Snobs. Elitists. Me. The show needs an enema. After a four-year hiatus, CACLV's Alan Jennings was there to give one. He provided a CD containing his own musical selections and had two guests who pretty much despise each other.

Alan used to be a guest host, but quit the show in protest a few years ago when it refused to publish the first show he did with Molovinsky and myself. At that time, the big topic was Allentown corruption, and the show we broadcast was all about Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. The former station manager, like most of the mainstream media at that time, had no interest in doing anything that was provocative, informative or newsworthy. Though Alan completely disagreed with what we were saying and is still a friend of Fed Ed, he quit when the station tried to bury the truth.

He's funny that way. I heard it’s called integrity.

Michael Molovinsky, constipated

Now there's new management, but the show has still been the worst hour of radio in the Lehigh Valley. A one-hour infomercial about fish oil is better. That changed with the show that Alan Jennings hosted, which will air tonight.

For one thing, there's no love lost between myself and Michael Molovinsky. For years, he's been taking petty little shots at me. I did defend myself when he falsely accused me of impersonating reader Monkey Momma. She would later introduce herself to him and prove him wrong. Except for that, I've pretty much taken the high road and acted like Jesus Christ, turning the other cheek. Maybe I could convert a Jew, I thought, with all my Christianity.

But at the radio show, it was "eye for an eye," baby. I turned into a Jew, a Mossad, and even considered wearing an eyepatch like Moshe Dayan. Alan wanted to talk about the decline in civility, and I pointed to Molovinsky and his creepy hate blog in which one reader actually argued without contradiction that Ethiopian immigrants have low IQs. Since Trump's election, Molovinsky has become his biggest cheerleader in the Lehigh Valley. He denies this, but finds an excuse for every cruel and vicious thing that hedonist does.

producer jumps out window mid-show

I laid into Molovinsky, even catching him in a vulgar sexist remark. When a break in the show came up, Molovinsky headed to the can and was gone for some time.

I think he shit himself.

At least it smelled that way.

Molovinsky kept trying to steer the conversation away from Trump, saying he wanted to talk about local stuff like Wehr's Dam and choo-choo trains. I refused to let him. A man who wants LV kids to go hungry or supply them with boxes of moldy cheese has a direct impact on the Lehigh Valley. A man who supported ripping children out of the arms of their mothers, a policy that he quickly reversed when he realized this will cost him votes, should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. A demagogue who appeals to the dark nature in people, and not their better angels, should be called out. Molovinsky, like Trump, appeals to the dark side. His racist and xenophobic readers are proof. If anti-Muslim, so much the better.

At one point in the show, Molovinsky chided me for allowing anonymous commenters on my blog, and then attacking them as cowards. I do attack people who hide behind anonymity to engage in personal attacks. He knows that. He complained that I bully these poor cowards by demanding that they identify themselves so we all know who to sue. I do. If someone engages in defamation, I want his or her identity known so that the victims can take action.

The show was certainly provocative, informative and newsworthy. I was able to tell readers about the outrageous $810,000 in legal fees charged by Norris, Mclaughlin and Marcus in 2016 and 2017, which were improperly funneled to this firm by former Executive John Brown through the General Purpose Authority. Brown did an end-run around Northampton County Council, which has called for the resignation of that law firm as well as the General Purpose Authority Chair.

Just as it slept through most of the political corruption in Allentown, waking up only after the feds raided City Hall, the mainstream press is napping again. Aside from this blog and one story at WFMZ-TV69, there has been no coverage during the war between Northampton County and its General Purpose Authority. Newspapers are mere shadows of what they once were. They no longer have the staff to cover the inside stories. This is nobody watching the hen house.

That's where Lehigh Valley Discourse could provide a real public service. Right now, it is nothing more than a vanity show. My suggestions: Change the name; get rid of the stupid music; have one or two hosts who will ask hard questions; allow call-ins; and feature weekly guests.