From Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association: On May 30, 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser published its first daily edition, becoming the first daily newspaper not only in Pennsylvania, but in our young nation. Today, more than 200 daily and weekly newspapers across the commonwealth carry on the ideals of not only that newspaper, but the Constitution and the free press it ensures. Today, we stand with many other newspapers across the country to defend our profession and the communities we serve.
We are NOT Fake News. Journalists pledge to report real, honest and credible news. We go to school to learn how to tell people’s stories, record history, sift through the hazes of propaganda and uncover the truth. We cover the stories and uncover the information everyone in the community needs to make informed decisions on who to vote for, where to eat, and what to buy.
Mistakes are NOT Fake News. Journalists do their best to report truthful information. In today’s world of the 24-hour news cycle, sometimes we make a mistake in the rush to sort through conflicting information and tell a story. We then do our best to correct the error and learn from it. This misinformation happens for a variety of reasons, but the mistake is not deliberate nor is it malicious.
News you don’t like is NOT Fake News. Not all news is happy news. We cover the tragedies, the crime, the tax hikes, the shady backroom deals. Just because it makes us uncomfortable, or angry, doesn’t mean it’s any less true. Journalists would not be doing their jobs if they didn’t cover the things that unsettle us. Many times, those are the things that impact our lives the most.
Opinions are NOT Fake News. The editorials and opeds we write and publish are just that – opinion. We endorse candidates based on the information we have and who we think will best serve our community. You may agree with us, or you may not. That’s OK. Our job is to provide you with the facts so you can form your own opinion and make your own informed decisions.
Journalists are NOT the enemy of the people. We are the people. We live in the communities we cover and, just like everyone else, want those communities to succeed. For communities to be at their best, the people who live in them need to know what is happening. Journalists are the eyes, ears, and voice of the people we serve. We sit at the school board meetings so you know who the next principal will be. We attend the town council meetings so you know which company is building in your backyard. We ask tough questions of government officials so you know where and how your tax dollars are being spent.
For every candidate we investigate, there’s a small business owner we profile. For every tax hike we report, there’s a high school football/basketball/soccer win we celebrate. For every congressman we question, there’s a charitable event we share. There is nothing fake about the communities, the people, the businesses we cover. There is nothing fake about our loyalty to those same communities, people and businesses.
We are not perfect. We know that. We also know that the news we provide can play a vital role in keeping our communities safe and economically sound. We cannot allow our leaders to erode the public’s trust in the media. Doing so would also erode the quality of information you receive, affecting the decisions you make.
The First Amendment is just 45 words in length, but they are mighty. It guarantees our freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Journalists are your safety valves, whistleblowers and reporters-in-chief who cover everything from what is going on in your town, to the cat stuck in the tree. And, we are passionate about our duties to document the history of our communities and serve as watchdogs to protect the public’s interests… your interests.
72 comments:
MAGA!!!
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Trump is the George Washington of the 21st Century!
Corporate shills.
If the "truth" is Hate Trump all the time, then the media the enemy of the people. It's very interesting that one has to go to Fox News to find out what is really going on and not listen to hateful rhetoric 24/7/365
“Nattering nabobs of negativism”
Strange. 300+ newspapers are publishing the same anti-Trump editorial today
Groupthink perhaps ?
They doth protest too much. News is a business. It's not a public watchdog. It's not the romantic vision they'd like us to embrace. So-called journalism has started wars and panics.
It's a for-profit entity. The Easton Express doesn't cover county meetings that are three blocks from their offices. News is a business and consumers of news are making choices. What a concept. I'm a never-Trumper R. He repulses me. But his telling the journalism emperor he has no clothes is the single thing I support him on.
what has the democrats or republicans politicians do for you or this country in the last 30 years. we need president Trump \he is doing more good for this country than all of them combined. go president Trump you have them and they do not even know it. the so called governor of new York said it we were never a great country -- that you typical liberal politician in this country --after Trump no more politicians or we will sink back to what we had before president Trump.
" Journalists pledge to report real, honest and credible news. "
The Morning Call publishes O'Reilly promotional releases about his projects as "news".
Organized Hate....from the news to democrats
trump, the smoke and mirrors president. Sides with Putin over our National Intelligence. Where are all then Blue supporters?
A good reminder to all of us that freedom of the press is more than just blindly following a president who expects fanfare, parades, and blind loyalty to him, rather than to the Constitution. The more sane GOP voters are recognizing the president is assaulting the foundation of our Constitution freedoms. The free press and free speech.
And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you too.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Their coordinated attack on this president and his supporters just is further confirmed. There is collusion and coordination to discredit every policy and action. Of course they are the defenders of the poor illiterate misinformed that support Trump. We do have freedom of the press. We do need freedom of the press. The press will be and has been getting the poll numbers they deserve. Not because of Trump, but because their own bias and not so subtle spinning has become so obvious. Their need to not only inform but influence the public is not the trait of true journalists. Sadly it seems many of the true journalists are now pushed aside and are replaced by those that are most biased. Maybe in the future they will have a reward for the most talented spinners.
Bernie, there's no question about it: you are 100% right.
"America was never a great country."... Gov. Andrew Cuomo; D/NY, 8/15/2018
They are the enemy of the United States of America, its duly elected and popular president, and every single person who patriotically supports the USA and President Trump.
That is not all "the people", but is is a heck of a lot of us.
The press have turned into another progressive shit-stain institution. I have been witness to this in my own lifetime. I am sure you can find on youtube, old CNN and MSNBC news casts. Watch them and you will see the difference to today. Today it is no longer news reporting, it is nothing but open hostility toward anything that doesn't fit their "progressive" ideology. The examples are endless.
No one should rely on The Morning Call or Express Times for trustworthy national and world news. They follow a pre-planned, hard left agenda. Negative spinmeisters. But, if that's what you are looking for . . . read Bill White and others.
I used to subscribe to the Morning Call mainly to read the letters to the editor on the editorial page. When the published letters became about 80/20 for leftist points of view I pulled the plug. I wish them a speedy demise. They’ve earned it.
President Trump has claimed many times that the press is against him, and just like clockwork, the press obliges him with a coordinated attack. Obviously, these people are utterly self-unaware. For all of the rantings against Trump, not one journalists has been put in jail as a result of attacking Trump. It appears the collusion is coming from the presstitutes.
I read your blog, I read both local papers and I read several news sites on my iPad. Whatever they espouse I take he opposite view because they are all full of leftist liberal crap. So Bernie you say north I say south. You say up I say down whatever you say I go the other way.
You see now what REAL collusion looks like...
And the thing about it is all of what they put in their editorials is what they perceive the horrors will be. Why don't they just grow up and look at the results? Ahh, that is right, they are news people... problem is that profession has changed in the last couple decades where it once reported what has happened, today they think being news people means that they create the news with their opinions.
The Morning Call was the biggest shill for Mayor Pawlowski and the NIZ. Instead of doing any type of reporting, they sat back as a cheerleader. The only reporting from any of the misdeeds prior to the indictments (which couldn't be ignored) came from a part-time blogger. It's really incredible.
"Journalists" need to sell papers or get clicks to stay employed. They will take an issue that at face value is "nothing to see here" and make it into something on a national travesty. I have been misquoted in the locals to make a non story seem interesting. But i understand these folks are just trying to pay their mortgage too. Once they realize that they are their own worst enemy things may change.
Trump has succeeded in playing on the fact that most do not trust the press. In turn, the press has fallen into the trap of trying to bring him down at all cost, and it shows.
We need to recognize that we are all human and not infallible. In the culture of the 24-hour new cycle, we are witnessing the death of investigative journalism. People just don't have the patience anymore.
Bernie you are about the closest thing we have left to a real journalist. You can get personal and even sloppy as Mr. Fox has proven recently. But keep up the good work and try to stay on the high road. Let the facts speak for themselves.
I've seen a lot of change in my baby boomer lifetime like the fall of the USSR and the advent of the internet but add to that list the real end of independent journalism.
Today may not go down in history as the exact day it happened, but today is going to be an example of what went wrong. Journalism as a concept and profession and for some a calling is going to be ashamed of this day.
When news reporting becomes PROPAGANDA it loses all value to many readers. When individual news stories include editorial content intended to tell us what each event SHOULD mean for us, we become insulted. Accuracy and relevance is OUR call, not some local news outlet employee.
The joint statement above references making reporting "mistakes." Really? Your industry is not failing for grammatical errors or typos. Many are rejecting your blatant attempts to control our mind. Change, or close shop. You won't be missed.
After Trump we will see a revolution in the media. We will see the demise of many of the present press. I do believe we will see news organizations come into being more like the CNN under Ted Turner, when it was the best, most world wide, objective news around. I believe the problems arouse when the news media was bought up by the entertainment industry. It is ruled from the top and objectivity is just too boring. Their credibility is gone, it will not be restored. It will be replaced.
Didn't bother reading the article. Only the comments. Left leaning press. Anti-Trump rhetoric. Always white officer shoots black man
Never black felon shoots white officer. Just an example. I AM NOT SAYING BLACKS ARE BAD!!
EXAMPLE. Save the racist...
The Morning Call, and others like it, is following a failed model. More trustworthy and unbiased news reporting can be found all over the internet. We really don't need the Morning Call for anything more than local stuff. Even that is done poorly, and with bias, unfortunately. Go back to having only one Editorial Page.
This discussion, like most today, has gone in terms of absolutes instead of the truth.
Are journalists in general the enemy of the people? Of course not, that's just a stupid thing to say and even more so to believe.
But, are there journalists who "shade the truth" - I'm being kind here - to fit their individual political spin, and mask that as reporting fact? Of course there are. And to believe that all journalists are as pure as the driven snow is just laughable.
News flash people - there are bad people on both sides of the aisle.
Until we start holding everyone accountable for the truth, including people in our own party or faction, we will continue to have meaningless debates like this.
The Banker
It's altogether hilarious to see the anti-big corporation crowd defend big corporate journalism, as corporate journalism uses it's loud megaphone to defend it's corporate model. The Morning Call provided robust PR for corrupt Allentown business and government interests for years. They weren't serving as stewards of freedom. They were essentially enemies of Allentown taxpayers, as they aided and abetted the Potemkin city corruption. We live in really weird times.
First, attacks on the press are age old, even in our country with a constitutional freedom of the press. If you’ve ever read early examples of partisan press, it makes contemporary press seem fairly tame. The Sedition Act during our second president’s administration prohibited: “write, print, utter, or publish… any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the government, and was used by the Federalists in power to suppress Democratic-Republican press, though clearly unconstitutional in hindsight.
Second, from Vietnam-Watergate era through the mid-90s, the press viewed themselves as the watchdogs of government, and was a heyday for investigative journalism. Power corrupts and governments lie. Good press, but then it got sloppy and everything became a “-gate” and the press could get into “feeding frenzies.”
Third, I think things began to change at that point for a host of simultaneous forces that evolved at warp speed to today: the ascendancy of echo-chamber talk-radio/tv (initially Limbaugh); 24/7 cable “news” that now had to fill 24 hours instead of the 30 min evening news; the media’s desire for “access” to power, and being “embedded with the troops” allowed them to be willfully manipulated during the post-9/11 years; the exploding market share captured by Fox, who blended news with opinion/entertainment forced other networks into “if you can’t beat them, join them” mode; the consolidation of media ownership under just a handful of corps; the technology that allows the internet in our hands provides a forum of viral info with no editorial fact checking; and so on.
Finally, Trump’s continual “enemy of the people”, “fake news” drum beat is harmful to our democracy. It is classic propaganda: if you say/print something enough, regardless of truth, it becomes so “familiar” to people “it must be true.” There has always been varying degrees of “bias” in “the media”, but at the hands of the government lies the danger: “It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Hence, purveyors of “truth” become “enemies of the people.”
The Morning Call's new motto:
"Not fake, just wrong."
Boy oh boy! Sure are a lot of Lehigh Valley "stable geniuses" posting this morning. So many people with their heads up their own asses looking at the world through their own navels.
I have never been shy about slamming newspapers or their focus, and did so as recently as yesterday. But that’s a far cry from calling them an enemy of the people, as Authoritarian Donald Trump has done. He lied nonstop, and news sources pointing that out are doing their job.
7-11 is a part-time job. That's about as close to the bullseye you're going to get from the news.
From the first paper, to the four, or five, multi-national news conglomerates that own every media outlet today, all news is fake, in that it was never meant to inform, but to manipulate.
People are not, and have never been, motivated by facts, they are motivated by the careful manipulation of their emotion. That's what news is, stories are reviewed, edited, and chosen however true, and packaged to careful manipulate the emotion of the reader toward a certain narrative.
To the purveyors of news there is no truth, only narrative hegemony.
Most of what we build our realities on is false, embracing that is the truth.
Gosh, nothing creepy nor self-defeating about 300 editors colluding to publish simultaneous editorials bashing President Trump for claiming that news services are colluding against him. Gosh, those Journalism school grads are real geniuses. No irony gets past them.
Something else, This post, along with the one in the Morning Call today is dripping with self righteous indignation and avoids the multitude of factually inaccurate reporting on the Trump Administration.
All the while they also fail to acknowledge the years of capitulation to anything factual about the Obama Administration's corruption.
I’d venture to say that close to 100% of news accounts about Trump are completely accurate, while Trump lies nonstop.
Here's Trump's actual tweet:
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
The above is quite different than "Newspapers are the Enemy of the People," or "Journalists are the Enemy of the People."
So, yes. FAKE news IS the enemy of the people.
1:26PM
You may be as correct as those accounts, but that doesn't make it news, nor is anyone more informed as a result. It's tabloidism.
1:23 - is it any wonder why this effort chose not to include Trump's ACTUAL statement? All according to plan, I'd say.
And so some 300 newspapers band together to print the same editorial denouncing President Trump. That is one newspaper per 1.08% of the countries population of 325+M. Only progressives would think that is a sizable number . . . wonder how many will be in business in five years?
Their little editorial says " . . . . Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current US administration are the "enemy of the people." This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president . . . . "
If an organization calls on its members to stand with the leadership on printing "Fake news," does that organization become an enemy of the people because they have blatantly lied to them?
In my estimation, when someone lies repeatedly, they are no longer trustworthy, and they have become my enemy by telling me those lies. THUS, President Trump is correct.
Newspapers who repeatedly print unsubstantiated lies about President Trump and his administration are in fact lying to the people which makes the newspapers their enemy. Their readers are being fed those lies day after day intentionally because the newspapers know that if readers read the same thing over and over, eventually they will accept it as the truth. This is the same "Big Lie" theory used by Josef Goebbels.
The newspapers have joined together to print "fake news" and now they have added credibility to the President's statement . . . many are indeed "the enemy of the people!" Congratulations on proving President Trump's point.
1:53 - Exactly! We also have a problem with some news media IGNORING informative, relevant, and factual knowledge about the very topic they are dealing with.
Best example is the matter of collusion with Russia to interfere in our elections. There is OVERWHELMING evidence of such interactions between Democratic Party operatives and Russia! We haven't read about that in the Morning Call. Why not?
This is not a new problem. In 1806 Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Massachusetts congressman: “As for what is not true you will always find abundance in the newspapers.”
A more 19th century way of saying “fake news.”
Thomas Jefferson, any student of history knows, was one of the earliest manipulators of newspapers.
News outlets have been in financial peril for many years. Markets, long ago, began to decide these outlets were not worthy of their trust and/or patronage. Trump, in his typical, vulgar way, is simply throwing dirt on a grave long dug. The majority of media sees and reports Trump with the same distaste and vicious hyperbole as Bernie. But Bernie's an opinion blogger. They're supposed to be journalists. Perhaps they need to review their business model. It's been broken for a while; long before Trumpworld.
No worries about Jefferson.
After the resistance takes over, all his statues will come down and he'll be retroactively convicted of crimes against humanity.
If you live on Jefferson Street, better get ready to send in your change of address form.
The press is like everything else that's free, you get what you pay for.
Bernie O'Hare is the enemy of We The People.
Trump 2020!
There was an old saying that stood for decades,"don't go head to head with someone who buys their ink by the barrel." This referred to Randolph Hearst who ran much of the print media at the time. This rule has lasted for many decades, until Trump. This was of course before Twitter. Trump really doesn't give a shit if he offends the press. After all much of the press are 22 to 25 year old who never had a real job outside their chosen profession. Most have very little life experience and believe they must try to control the politics of the nation. They believe what they were taught in college, that America is an unjust country that has lived off the poor of the world. They believe they are much more pure than anyone who made his money in business and making a profit is a dirty way to live. They obviously believe they are above criticism, much as is the younger generation who have been pampered, never scolded, never criticized, never yelled at by anyone. Trump may loose his confrontation with the media, but he will have put up a good fight and have definitely exposed their bias.
Nobody has illustrated the fake news better than Bernie himself...
... when enumerating the caveats of the published report by Josh Shapiro on the child molestation claims, the involvement of Catholic priests, and the Church cover-up.
Bernie quite eloquently demonstrates that although true, it was at best old news being repackaged to put forth a narrative having little to do with the story itself or with action taken by the AG office. It was a political motivated story meant to play on the emotions of the electorate to advanced a political career. It is fake news.
It was far from fake news. In my story, iaskedthat it be read in context.
The Secret Service found Bernie O'Hare to be Fake News even if O'Hare, himself, just can not seem to accept the reality of his failed efforts to railroad someone who dares to disagree with the former attorney who somehow conspired to lose his license to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennyslvania.
Bernie O'Hare IS Fake News on steroids.
In the larger context, to get even a whiff of "real news" would require at least a minimum security clearance.
Short of that, it's pavblum. It's why blogs are popular, they're better entertainment and the spectrum provides the insight.
Just used car sales people hiding behind the cloak of media like the cloaks with the white color.
It's funny that someone hiding behind the cloak of anonymity would hypocritically complain about editorial boards not identifying the author of an editorial. We know who the editorial board is. That's more than you can say.
"The Secret Service found Bernie O'Hare to be Fake News even if O'Hare, himself, just can not seem to accept the reality of his failed efforts to railroad someone who dares to disagree with the former attorney who somehow conspired to lose his license to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennyslvania.
Bernie O'Hare IS Fake News on steroids."
This is from Rolf Oeler, a troll who appears regularly on Molovinsky's blog, where the racists congregate. MM complains about the poverty magnet, but he is a racist magnet. On the day Obama was re-elected, an angry Oeler threatened to kill him, on this very blog. I reported him, and he was investigated. The Secret Service likely dismissed his threat as nonserious, but he made it, and I would report him again if he did it again.
What a bunch of dopes.
If people who think the press is the enemy can't be persuaded by 350 identical editorials, there's really no hope.
24/7 news has lead to hyperbolic coverage of many events that would have received little or no coverage in the past. Blatantly partisan channels like FOX showed up because of the popularity of ultra hype conservative "talk" radio. While there are still news programs willing to do more deep investigation like PBS newshour, market share for eyeballs is driving news more and more into a fast moving entertainment paced "show". While it's very obvious there are many FOX watchers on this blog, most of the stories reported on mainstream stations are accurate. It's the commander in chief himself and his antics that provide a frenetic wealth of "can you believe the awful thing he did or said now" moments.
The swamp has become a cespool thanks to donalds daily barge of sewage waste. Vote for ethical candidates who will defend American Values and standup to this president every time he crosses the line.
Why don't peopl leave their name when they post??? Because they worry that you will somehow trip them up and sue them for defamation of character and put a $100,000 lien against them like you did to your old girlfriend Tricia Mezz. I have reached out to you to talk one on one about what I know and what I witnessed so maybe you can have another perspective. But you never reached out. I probably did this 5-6 times over the last two years. You aren't just fake news, you are an enemy of the state.
Keeping with the cesspool theme, glad to see a few corn kernels of sanity and reason among the partisan feces.
Not exactly sure how we could do it, but we'd be much better off if we busted up the media monopolies in the country and re-established laws/regulations on independent ownership of newspapers, radio, television, cable and internet.
Scott of Nazareth
"Why don't peopl leave their name when they post??? Because they worry that you will somehow trip them up and sue them for defamation of character and put a $100,000 lien against them like you did to your old girlfriend Tricia Mezz."
In other words, you are anonymous so you can defame people like she did.
@Scott of Nazareth
"Not exactly sure how we could do it."
You're a good diagnostician but I believe this is terminal.
There is just no way to keep the powerful from colluding for better or worse. It's the way the stream flows.
There nothing for us to do but bear witness and get our own houses in order. Good luck to you.
@12:27 - I agree with you but don't want to believe it. There has to be a way to save us from our own ever growing retardation as evidenced by 90% of the pin-headed replies above...
@12:27 - vote them out and put in people who care more about all citizens and the well being of this country versus those who prioritize, themselves, their party and their donors above all else.
@3:18PM
That doesn't work, we tried it again and again. The Angels you seek do not exist.
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