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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, July 26, 2021

Morning Call Fails Its Readers Again

On Friday, blogger Michael Molovinsky made some interesting observations about The Morning Call. This is the hedge fund owned daily that suppressed an important story about child abuse that was embarrassing to both Gerlach and Valley Youth House, the publicly funded nonprofit where Gerlach was employed. The paper knew she had flat out admitted to dropping off an underage runaway at a tent city, and refused to tell its readers. Even after it knew that she was under investigation by the Lehigh County District Attorney, it remained silent. Only after charges were filed did it finally run a story.Its editor offered some hollow excuses for its failure to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. To me, that itself was an admission of its failure. 

Mark Pinsley, Lehigh County's Controller, was running for the State Senate before he was even sworn in as a South Whitehall Tp Comm'r. No sooner did he lose the Senate race to Pat Browne that he was off and running again. This time he was running for Controller. After he was elected, he played the patronage game to install Josh "Dox" Siegel as some sort of assistant. He did so despite Siegel's complete lack of  knowledge of accounting. 

Together, both Pinsley and Siegel came up with the idiotic idea of increasing the sales tax in Lehigh County as well as a county earned income tax. That's right. These rocket scientists wanted ti impose two regressive taxes on the citizens who could least afford to pay them. This proposal thankfully went nowhere, although it did have support from back-room politicians like Alan Jennings. 

Now Pinsley is running for the State  Senate again. He formally announced on Saturday, but anyone who takes even the slightest interest in local politics has known about this for several weeks. 

So last week, The Morning Call gave Pinsely a bit of free advertising. It ran an opinion piece from Pinsley. It was Pinsley's second one in a month. The Morning Call  failed to warn its readers that Pinsley was going to be announcing his second state senate bid. 

At the same time, the paper has still failed to explain why it took Valley Youth House so long to investigate and terminate Gerlaqch. It has failed to tell its readers that magisterial candidate Amy Zanelli is misrepresenting herself as some sort of super child abuse investigator when in fact she was fired ... twice.   It has failed to warn readers that the GOP candidate for NorCo County Exec is asn anti-vaxer who has hinted at violence when he loses the race. 


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has the Call since this horrible story was revealed here interviewed VYH executives or inquired as to why any nonprofit director should receive $300K+ salary? Some days the Call is so thin.

Anonymous said...

And they run mostly anti-Conservative articles.
And I have to change MY Plan B to something else, because I don't list violence as Plan B. But now Plan B is labeled violence.

Other than that I don't pay to read the Mcall. Print or on-line. Still read what I want though. Wouldn't contribute a penny to do it.

Bernie O'Hare said...

It is very clear that Lynch's use of the words "Plan B",m which come on the heels of someone suggesting it's time to physically take back this country, is hinting at violence. He's outrageous. The Morning Call has done nothing to make readers aware that this fringe candidate is on the ballot.

Anonymous said...

Morning call is a good example of what president Trump called FAKE NEWS.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't call TMC "Fake News." It's "No News" or "Rehashed News." Most of the time it ignores news, or prints something others have already reported without giving credit to the other source - especially blogs.

As for Lynch, he won't be getting my vote. 4 years of national chaos was enough for me. I'm not going to give another idiot a chance to demonstrate ignorance and stupidity on a local level.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I decline to publish the usual political bias allegations. The paper is biased in favor of what Molovinsky calls its pets. Some are liberal. Some are conservative. It really is not a politicaL bias, though I understand those who think so. What bothers me is the paper's failure to be fair and inform its readers when one of its pets goes astray. It maintained radio siolence on Gerlach until it was impossible to ignore. It has bent over backwards for political opportunist Pinsley. It is now refusing to warn its readers about Steve Lynch, though it's quite clear from his own rants that he is dangerous.

Anonymous said...

"Together, both Pinsley and Siegel came up with the idiotic idea of increasing the sales tax in Lehigh County as well as a county earned income tax."


Since you brought it up, let me add what I believe is another Morning Call cover-up.

Shortly after Pinsley and Siegel put their proposal out to the public, the Morning Call was working on an article about it. After interviewing people about the proposal, a story never appeared. Mind you, this was at a time when Pinsley and Siegel were going to area municipalities to try to garner the support of elected officials for their tax scheme (as an aside, I believe that SWT - led by Tori Morgan - narrowly voted to support the plan). The point being, it wasn't like Pinsley and Siegel had pulled their proposal or that it wasn't current news.

To my knowledge, the article never ran. How do I know about a story that never ran? In early May 2020, I was one of the people contacted by a MC reporter for comment on the proposal, and gave numerous reasons (some that you have stated) as to why it was a terrible idea. After a month and a half and no article, I finally heard back from the reporter as to what happened to the article. I was told that "they" (the Call) decided not to run the article until the idea had a little bit of momentum (which I found odd).

I don't know WHY the story didn't run. I have a hard time believing that it was to wait until it gathered momentum since Pinsley and Siegel were running with the idea. Was it that the Call realized how unpopular this idea was with people and that it might hurt Pinsley or Siegel politically? Was it that the Call got pressure from Jennings? I wasn't aware of his support for their idea until it was mentioned in the post above, but it's no secret that Jennings has a strong influence with the Call.

I also have no idea WHO inside the Call decided not to run the story. Maybe the reporter decided to spike his own story, or maybe it came from above him (Morelli).

Either way, it's another example of the Call failing to inform its readers, and likely taking sides in which politicians they protect and promote.

Anonymous said...

Let's also not forget how the TMC continued to write favorable articles about Fed Ed until he was charged. As previously stated by others, it is no longer a source of local news. I have also stop paying for it either in print or online.

Cindy Brown said...

I’m waiting to hear if Amy Zanelli and/or Van Scott passed the state certification test to sit as a Magisterial District Judge.

Cindy Brown said...

I’m waiting to hear if Amy Zanelli and/or Van Scott passed the state certification test that is required to sit as a Magisterial District Judge.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Cindy Brown, so far as I know they both passed.

Anonymous said...

U.S. Supreme Court Judge Hugo Black said, "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We live in country with a free and unrestrained press. Unfortunately, some of the press fails to fully work within the gift from the founding fathers.

The Morning Call is so guilty of this. Sad, but many of us subscribe for the obits, coupons, and puzzles. It certainly is no longer for reporting of the news unless its the restaurant that just opened or closed, what's good eating at the Allentown Fair, how to grow raspberry plants, etc. These are fine feel-good, fluff pieces. But, readers deserve better. We deserve the same level of reporting as Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig bring to The Washington Post.

Can The Morning Call not pursue a story that has implications...pursue the story when it matters. I dare them to prove me wrong. I dare them to closely look at Amy Zanelli, who is running for a trusted position of magisterial district judge. Her background is rather sketchy. She claims to have graduated from Rutgers with multiple degrees and certificates. Did she? She was fired, not once...but twice...from positions of trust. There is this strange entanglement between her and the Harringtons and their own independent pursuits. And, let's not get started on the unhinged behavior she has exhibited before the court and with members of law enforcement. This is someone seeking a position of importance? Please...

Morning Call editors...prove me wrong. Do your due diligence as Justice Hugo said to "expose deception." I'm betting you won't...because you are happy reporting on the restaurant that just opened or closed, what's good eating at the Allentown Fair, how to grow raspberry plants, etc. Sadly, that is not what the founding fathers envisioned when they wrote the First Amendment in our Constitution.

Anonymous said...

They continue to change the access to the obituary page. Now you need to click on individual obits to see basic details. This I think is designed to subject you to more ads. Shame on them for trying to further cash in on someone's passing. The cost of posting the obituary is exorbitant.

Cindy Brown said...

Thank you Bernie. This makes the November election for MDJ a real mess. Her support from the Democratic Party is ludicrous.

Anonymous said...

Bernie PLEASE correct me if I’m incorrect, but I just paged through your articles and have not found a story on the car crash in Nazareth weeks ago. You know the one with the prominent judges son… I read the article of this post about how the morning call failed the people again, but have not seen ANY coverage or reporting on the ADULT who crashed into someone’s house while high… your insight would be much appreciated.