Morning Call Fails To Even Acknowledge LTE Submitted by Prominent Local Attorney

Bill Malkames is a highly regarded zoning lawyer who practices in Allentown. I've told you before about his love for practically all sports. He met Judge Ed Cahn, himself a Lehigh University basketball hall of famer, in a pick up game. His real athletic prowess was in biathlons and triathlons. In his 50s, he once defeated the Naval Academy's entire team in a biathlon. But that's only a part of his story. Let be give you some more.

The guy is a frickin' genius. So smart that they rushed him through high school. I think he graduated when he was 9. He went to both Muhlenberg and University of Pennsylvania Law School on academic scholarships. At age 90, he still practices law and is still winning cases in Allentown. He reads voraciously, and can quote from poems like Oscar Wilde's Reading Gaol once the Sangria (his favorite vitamin) kicks in. 

Though gifted genetically, he does have some flaws. He's a terrible Hearts player. And despite his intelligence, he's an unabashed conservative. My life's mission is to bring him and his wife back from the Dark Side. 

He recently sent a letter to the editor to The Morning Call, the Lehigh Valley's largest daily. He criticizes the newspaper for its "far left leaning" proclivity in headlines, columns and even cartoon selections. You can read his brief missive below.

Whether Bill's criticism is correct is irrelevant to me. What disturbs me is that the newspaper has failed to even acknowledge receipt. That reflects a disdain for nearly all the customers it is supposed to serve. The result is fewer subscriptions, ads and reporters to keep you informed. In short, it's bad business.     

Bill Malkames LTE by BernieOHare on Scribd

I Just Canceled My Morning Call Subscription

I believe local news coverage is essential to democracy. Without it, corruption rears its ugly head. Without information about those who decide local issues, we tend to vote by tribe instead of for the person. I've seen this in the at-large county races, and it has resulted in the election of several wing-nuts. Yet I just canceled my online subscription to The Morning Call. Let me explain why.  

We all know its coverage of local news is a shadow of what it once was. Aside from the cities, its reporters have largely stopped going to meetings. Thanks to Keith Groller, the paper still makes a valiant effort to cover high school sports, but he's only one person. Knowing these shortcomings, I was still willing to subscribe. Half an apple is still better than no apple.    

I've ended my subscription because, time and again, the newspaper denies me access to my digital subscription. When I call to complain, I am told to clear my cache. It still fails. After I give up, it starts working again when I try a few days later. It is only temporary. 

The website is painfully slow and full of pop-ups as well.  

I have online subscriptions to several publications. Only The Morning Call does this. I am unwilling to spend my limited resources on a company that seems uninterested in saving itself. 

Have any of you had these issues? 

Morning Call Guild Is Overdue

When I was younger and had more hair than I do now, both local newspapers would send squads of reporters nightly to cover municipal meetings all over the Lehigh Valley. They also had someone on hand to cover every high school athletic contest. I remember watching Peg Rhodin phone in stories from the Easton courthouse and give flawless accounts of criminal cases. Or reporters hounding an Executive so much that he would insist all questions must be in writing and faxed to him in advance. Times have changed. The Express Times no longer covers county government, and is content to just run news releases sent by the county. The Morning Call will sometimes send a reporter, but he misses the most important stories discussed in committee hearings. This is bad for democracy. People who have no idea who is representing them will naturally align themselves with their tribes and might vote for a terrible candidate simply because of his party. What's worse, this lack of coverage is an open invitation to political corruption. We need newspapers, but they are now owned by corporations who care more about dollars than actually telling you what is happening. Though we still have two dailies, the Lehigh Valley has become a news desert. WFMZ-TV69 actually provides vastly superior local coverage than you'll find in your daily. So that's why I think the efforts of Morning Call reporters to unionize is long overdue.

Morning Call reporter Tom Shortell tweets, "I've worked as a newspaper reporter for 11 years, all for non-union papers. It's a brutal industry. My newsrooms have been downsized 5 times, including a round where I was laid off. This step is to protect our local newsroom and provide job security for the journalists in it." Reporter Steve Essack adds that reporters have formed a guild to combat "Tribune’s corporate nonsense that wastes money and people."

I've certainly seen both newspapers waste good people.

Although I understand newspapers need to make a profit, they also need to tell us what is going on or people will stop buying them. While a union offers no protection against short-sighted corporate cuts, a contract would ensure better working conditions. More importantly, a guild will enable reporters to continue to act as watchdogs instead of lapdogs licking up news releases.

They explain more in this FAQ.

Professional Photographer Claims Copyright Infringement By Morning Call

Theo Anderson is a highly regarded professional photographer. He has the rare gift of being able to capture more than a physical image. Of Allentown origin, he is perhaps best known around here for his photo history of the construction of the PPL Arena. The Butz family (photography lovers, especially son Lee) gave him extraordinary access to the construction site. According to an Anderson Facebook post, The Morning Call recently used some of his work without permission. Here's what he says, minus the picture:

The Morning Call has used a photograph of mine without my permission in the current edition of The Morning Call and online.

The Morning Call and the writers Jon Harris and Nicole Radzievich are responsible for this ethical travesty. The photo appears on page 6 of an article about transforming #2 machine shop into a water park. I would not have permitted this use.

Mr. Harris,

I was quite surprised when my iconic photograph #2 machine shop was used in the Sunday edition of the Morning Call, January 20, 2019. After investigation I also found that it was used online in a gallery under the Lehigh Valley Business Cycle article, “Sand’s Bethlehem casino buyer pitches $190 million investment, second hotel on Steel Land.”

You and the The Morning Call have debased my work and reputation. This photograph is paramount to my career. Prints are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Art Houston, The Allentown Art Museum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Lehigh University, Michigan State University and numerous private collections. It is deemed by many significant curators to be the important modern photograph taken at that site.

I gave no permission for the use. The copyright is registered in my name. I have no idea the source of the photograph but you certainly had a moral obligation to contact me regarding it’s [sic] use.

Please note I could not find Ms. Radzievich’s as the email the link directed me to you. I have included editorial staff in this email.

You and the paper have turned perhaps the most iconic and collected work of my career into rubbish. You did this with clear disregard of copyright.

You should be ashamed of yourself. This has damaged my reputation and the value of my work.

The record needs to be set straight and I need to be compensated for this illegal act on your part and the part of The Morning Call.

Sincerely,

Theo Anderson

Morning Call Refuses LTE Critical of State Rep.Gary Day

I often hear that The Morning Call is a biased rag. I agree it's biased, but believe the bias is neither liberal nor conservative. It is instead slanted to support crony capitalists. That's why it was so unwilling to take a hard look at Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski over his years in office. It finally started when the feds were knocking at the door. This paper has always cast its lot with whomever it identifies as the ruling elite, no matter which party. So it's no surprise that this supposed guardian of free expression declined to publish Richard Horton's LTE criticizing Republican State Rep. Gary Day.

As a nerd, I actually look at campaign finance reports of my elected representatives to find out who they really represent

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my State Rep Gary Day (PA 187th) has received $25,000 from each of the two top people with the Rothrock automobile dealerships. That was two years ago, when he did not even have an opponent in the general election.

$50,000! Wow! That is potentially more than many people at the dealership earn annually - and more than half the salary of a state representative.

It kind of makes me wonder whom Gary Day is working for. I don't think it is me.

Richard Horton

Morning Call Refused Evidence Exonerating Marty Nothstein of Sexual Misconduct

Marty Nothstein, left,and campaign
manager Dennis Roddy

Following three months of investigation, three Morning Call reporters* - Nicole Radzievich, Steve Esack and Tom Shortell - teamed up Friday to publish a lengthy story reporting allegations of sexual misconduct swirling around LV Congressional candidate Marty Nothstein. It's the kind of news that could easily derail his campaign and marginalize him as a serious candidate. But after reading the news account and listening to Nothstein's explanation, there's no there there. If anything, the story marginalizes The Morning Call. Although these reporters made repeated efforts to contact these women independently, they nevertheless refused to review signed affidavits from them, denying any sexual improprieties. They also refused to meet these ladies when an offer was made by the Nothstein camp.

This supposed sexual misconduct, by the way, is nothing that just happened recently. It is alleged to have occurred in 2000, over 18 years ago. At that time, Nothstein said he was "living like a monk," rising at 6 am daily and going to sleep by 8 pm. He was training for the Summer Olympics that year and would eventually win a gold medal in Sydney as a sprint cyclist.

Other than the 2000 incident, no other similar complaints have been made about Nothstein.

An anonymous tipster, not one of the alleged victims, complained to USA Cycling about the 2000 incident just 11 days after Nothstein had announced his candidacy for Congress. That tip was shared with SafeSport, an independent nonprofit committed to ending all forms of abuse in sport. It only reports on its investigations when disciplinary action has been taken. There is no report of any disciplinary action against Nothstein.

An anonymous tipster also contacted Upper Macungie police with the same accusations. They and the Lehigh County DA's office investigated and determined these complaints were groundless.

At the time of the anonymous tip, Nothstein was the Velodrome's Executive Director. The Board, chaired at the time by Attorney Andrew Ralston,Jr., placed him on administrative leave without pay in February, and then ended his contract. William Chadwick, a former prosecutor and state inspector general who has been retained by Nothstein, said that the former Olympic cyclist was bound by confidentiality and unable to discuss publicly his suspension.

Ralston, who chaired the Velodrome Board at the time of Nothstein's suspension, was a partner at the Gross, McGinley law firm until 2016. That's where Democratic Congressional candidate Susan Wild was employed until gaining her party's nomination.

He is currently a partner at the White and Williams law firm. That firm was billing the Velodrome for legal services, and Nothstein had raised concerns about it. 

Nothstein first became aware of the identities of the two women involved from 2000 because they contacted him after being approached by reporters. His campaign obtained written affidavits from both and they were offered to reporters with on condition that there would be no quotations from the affidavits and the identity of these putative victims would remain confidential. This was refused. Reporters said they wanted to be able to speak to them as well. Nothstein campaign manager Dennis Roddy states he obtained permission to share both affidavits, allow quotations and make both persons available. This offer was rejected, too.

At the news conference, Morning Call reporters declined to respond to Nothstein's claim that "Morning Call reporters declined to so much as meet with [the alleged victims] or examine their statements. Instead, we live in a time when anonymous people in the shadows can spread false allegations and get them into the media ... ."

Reporters directed inquiries to Interim Editor Terry Rang. In a statement, she said the newspaper was unwilling to accept the affidavits under the conditions set by Roddy. But perhaps unknown to her, Roddy dropped those conditions. Efforts to reach her about Roddy's second offer have this far been unsuccessful.

"I want to say to the voters of this district: these are false accusations, planted just days after I began my candidacy. The presumed 'victims' themselves deny such a thing happened. It's time to end this sort of politics. We should be talking about policy, not false rumors."

Nothstein's wife Christi also released a statement in response to The Morning Call story: "I am asking that the people who are lying to destroy Marty's campaign for Congress also understand that they are destroying people's reputation and lives. They are hurting several families by dragging them into this fabricated scandal."

"It was a tough day to send my [PSU-bound] daughter to school today," said Nothstein. "Provide a headline that provides the truth," he suggested. "To pick and choose who you're going to hammer, that's just not fair."
___________

* A fourth reporter, Laura Olson, assisted from Washington.

Morning Call Report About Allentown Is "Fake News"

Recently, The Morning Call published a story claiming that Allentown ranks #79 of the 100 best places to live. It would probably be more accurate to say that The Morning Call regurgitated a story from U.S. News and World Report. While Allentown may in fact be a very nice place to live,  this is honest-to-goodness "fake news."

Here's why. The Morning Call story is about Allentown the City, yet the U. S. News and World Report ranking is based on statistics for what is known as the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or "metro area," not the city. All of the statistics - population, crime, education, income, etc. - are MSA based. It's a neat little trick to use positive statistics for the entire region, which happens to include Bethlehem, Easton and four counties, one in New Jersey as well as Carbon County. The Morning Call story perpetuates a myth to make Allentown more attractive to investors. Its first obligation should be to the truth, not real estate sales.

Are there six colleges and universities in Allentown? Where? 207 schools in Allentown? Where? This is shoddy reporting. Billy Givens, the original bottom-feeding blogger, liked to call Allentown's newspaper The Morning Call Girl. This story certainly demonstrates that Billy had a legitimate criticism.

Morning Call Enables Fed Ed

I wish I could say I was surprised to see The Morning Call publish yet another op-ed by Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. That paper has been in the tank for him since he was first elected in 2005. Fed Ed's stock is so low on City Council that they unanimously asked him to resign. It's doubtful they will approve any cabinet nominee he selects because he's lost any moral authority. But like the wife of an active alcoholic, The Morning Call is an enabler. The paper allows him to preach on their dime, without holding him accountable for a federal investigation aimed at him, and one that has crippled the city.

Why on earth would the paper publish a word he says when he refuses to address the elephant in the room?

Morning Call Gets Mulroy Story Wrong

Last week, I was the first to tell you that a state auditor general's report has taken the Bangor Area School Board to task for paying former Superintendent Pat Mulroy $142,000 for "consulting" services that were never performed. The Morning Call is the last local news outlet to chime in on that story. Despite having several other news sources to review, it still managed to get its facts wrong. This is hardly the "fair" and "thorough" news coverage for which the Morning Call's Bill White takes credit.

According to the story, "Then-school board member Ron Angle questioned Mulroy's leadership during a public meeting and urged the board to make a change." That's untrue. Angle was not a member of the Board at the time. He did question her leadership, but did so as a private citizen. Had this story been "thorough," that mistake would have been avoided.

The story, as written, is also unfair. It creates the false impression in the mind of readers that Angle was on the Board when the deal was made to dump Mulroy. Ron gets into enough trouble on his own and needs no help from The Morning Call.

Now I don't mind when a news outlet picks up on a story that first appears here and fails to credit me. To me, the reward is seeing the story. But I do mind when the paper waxes on about what a good job it does, and then manages to mangle a story handed to it on a silver platter.

I might call it "hogwash." It certainly appears as though "the paper has been asleep at the switch or [is] deliberately turning a blind eye."

Will there be a clarification? I won't hold my breath.

Updated 10:15 am: To its credit, The Morning Call has changed its story to indicate that Angle was a former school board member at the time that he complained about Mulroy.

The Morning Call's Tatemae Problem

Over the past few weeks, I've taken a few rips at The Morning Call's fawning over Allentown's Neighborhood Millionaire Improvement Zone (NIZ or MIZ) as well as its attempt to deflect attention away from the federal investigation into Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. Fellow blogger Michael Molovinsky has been equally critical. This, combined with numerous complaints on Facebook, has prompted the paper's sole remaining columnist, Bill White, to write an unusually defensive feature insisting that the newspaper's coverage has been thorough and fair. Those of us making "misrepresentations" to the contrary are full of "hogwash."

Bill is wrong.

Let's lay out some of the facts here. The newspaper is a shadow of its former self. Having gone corporate, it has seen many of its best reporters and editors cast adrift, in favor of those more willing to keep their heads down and do as they're told. It's also headquartered inside the MIZ, and presumably will benefit from all the pretty buildings.

Bill White's Pro-Pawlowski Pal

I find it ironic that the very first person White references in his column is a former reporter known for his pro-Pawlowski bias. This friend also worked briefly for Fed Ed's campaign manager, Miked Fleck. Since he's looking for work, I will refrain from identifying him here by name. But as a former Morning Call reporter, this friend was already slanting coverage towards Pawlowski when he first ran for Mayor. Later, as a paid Pawlowski operative, he did manage to spin a few stories out of the Morning Call that were critical of Whitehall Mayor Ed Hozza, one of Fed Ed's rivals.

I know this because he tried to spin me, too.

Stories Critical of Pawlowski

White goes on to cite several stories that were highly critical of Pawlowski's pay-to-play practices. Fed Ed's shoddy campaign finances, which were first reported here, became a series of pay-to-play pieces. These were picked up and expanded upon by two very aggressive and hard-hitting reporters, Darryl Isherwood and Jarrett Renshaw. They did incredible work, as White correctly boasts.

Neither of them stayed with The Morning Call.

Ever wonder why?

I know for a fact that reporters assigned to cover Allentown had as much trouble getting editors to agree to publish a critical story as they did in doing the research for their investigatory efforts. Editors have gone along with Pawlowski's attempt to create a false image of Allentown's "rebirth" or "renaissance" (Japanese call this tatemae) instead of showing Allentown exactly as it appears (Japanese call this honne).

While patting the paper on the back, perhaps Bill can explain the real reason why the Abe Atiyeh land deal was completely missed last year, when blogger Michael Molovinsky first wrote about it. Perhaps he can explain why it was the last news outlet to report that Fed Ed paid him $1.4 million for land the City's own appraiser only valued at $580,000. Its first real story occurred 16 days after mine., and a year after Molovinsky.

Is that an example of being thorough and fair?

Morning Call Missed Discriminatory Gentrification

The paper refused to cover Fed Ed's discriminatory gentrification attempts in the downtown, where he began sweeping the poor out of the way in 2007 to make room for the pretty people. At that time, his solution to Allentown's many problems was, of all things, fine dining. Johnny Mañana's (with an ñ, damn it!). The paper did ultimately write a few pieces when the MIZ began to take shape, but this is something that  Michael Molovinsky and I had already been writing about for three years.

Fed Ed's Abuse of Code Enforcement

The paper also failed to pick up on Fed Ed's abuse of code enforcement to punish political enemies and reward his pals, a point made in the Haddad prosecution. He unleashed his goons on a building owner who dared sport a digital billboard that featured an ad from Lou Hershman. Fed Ed even set them after 75 year-old Zee Weikel, for daring to have an occasional yard sale so she could go out with her lady friends once in a blue moon.

For his pals, things were different. A hedge funds manager, who needed the city's blessing for some in ground pool he wanted at his mansion, is an example. Managing Director Francis Dougherty fired off an email to one of his underlings, demanding quick action. "This is a favor for tim holt. Our action on tim's behalf means money from air products later."

The paper never looked into uneven code enforcement, not even when Michael Molovinsky wrote about how Fed Ed used that and jail to essentially steal the Neuweiler building from its rightful owner.

Tatemae v.honne

The Morning Call has presented us with tatemae. The Strata flats story, for example, "reports" that nearly all the apartments have been rented out. But there is no way that could be known without actually seeing the rental agreements. It chose to rely on the landlord, who would be a fool to admit he's having trouble.

Basically, the paper provided free advertising.

The attempt to portray Fed Ed as the innocent victim of Evil Miked Fleck is similarly nauseating. Last time I checked, innocent victims don't sweep their offices for bugs or buy burner phones.

The paper has an obligation to present honne, the way things are. It largely succeeds, but not in Allentown.  

Salute to Bill White

I'll end this piece by saluting Bill White. This might annoy him right now, but he's a very large part of the reason why people began paying attention to this and other blogs. In our infancy, most "journalists", including Bill's former colleague Paul Carpenter, turned their noses up at blogs. Much of the criticism directed at people like myself, who have no training or editors, is completely justified. But Bill recognized that we actually do break stories and often connect the dots. Unhampered by space limitations or deadlines, we can go into detail that real journalists can only envy. Bill occasionally refers to interesting stories from Blogistan. His recurring "What is It?" feature, for example, is based on Kathy Frederick's Junk Drawer. Never full of himself, he was among the first real journalists to give credit where credit is due. More often than not, I find myself in agreement with him and especially like his humor. But not this time.

Morning Call Doubles Actual Increase in Airport Traffic

A recent Morning Call report giddily proclaims that passenger traffic is soaring at the LVIA airport, claiming that 90,000 passengers flew in and out of the airport in February, a 17% increase over the same month last year.

Except it's untrue.

The Morning Call mistakenly Assad combined the reported January and February totals to get to that 90,000 figure (actually, the reported combined total was 89,208).

To make matters worse, the numbers are deliberately inflated. That's because they include those who take the United bus to and from EWR

The actual figure of folks who got on or off an airplane (not a bus) at ABE was 43,055 in January and 42,558 in February for a total of 85,613. This is an improvement over 2014, but it's about half what is reported.

Do You Like New Mcall.COM Layout?

I have to give it a few days, but right now, I'm thinking No.

Morning Call T&A

The Morning Call has uploaded 205 pictures of the scantily clad women in the Eagles' cheerleader tryouts. Is this a newspaper or Playboy?

Morning Call Publishes Ballot ... For Primary

Newspapers head for the hills before an election instead of actually covering stories at a time when people are actually interested. Then, once the dust has settled and nobody has voted, they will piously condemn the electorate for their apathy.

In advance of tomorrow's election, The Morning Call has decided to publish the ballot to help us all out.

But it's the primary ballot. Their "correction" piece fails to correct the error by linking to a correct ballot. They do not even link to the LV LWV site, where the voters' guide is located.

Bill White, Terrorist Columnist

Morning Call columnist Bill White's condemnation of Northampton County Controller Steve Barron has drawn the wrath of County Council Tricia Mezzacappa as well as Fake Rev Mario Martinez, who claims to speak regularly to Jesus through his television set.

Mezzacappa, the "God Hates Fags" candidate, calls White's column a "manifesto of hatred" that "reeks of another bottom feeding blogger with no credibility, and one who looks to have his bread buttered on both sides."

That can't be me.

I'm allergic to butter.

Fake Rev Mario Martinez claims White is a "terrorist columnist" and suggests he might even be a "Fabian Socialist that [sic] wants to assist in setting the stage of communism in America." He notes that White is part of a media "bought by the highest bidder, and we all know who that is."

White claims he has no idea, but that's what I'd expect from a Fabian Socialist like him, with his beady little eyes.

Unfortunately, as a bottom-feeding blogger who has researched critics of Fabian Socialists, I think I know what the Fake Rev is saying. If I am right, he is sicker than even I had thought.

Updated 1:00 AM: I am no fan of The Morning Call and have butted heads with Bill White several times about just about everything because I'm a miserable bastard. Some of my complaints have been prompted by his columns about Executive John Stoffa and former council member Ron Angle. The suggestion that he has given either of them a "pass" is just pure nonsense.

MC Reporter Displays Bias Against Lehigh's Conservative Board

A Morning Call and Express Times reporter was at yesterday's news conference, in which Ismael Arcelay formally announced his intention to run for Northampton County Council. I was there, too, representing bottom-feeding bloggers everywhere.

Now the difference between reporters and people like me, I'm told, is that they are "objective." But most reporters will concede that's bullshit. Everyone is biased. Those who claim they are not are lying to themselves.

Pleasantries were exchanged before the news conference, and The Morning Call's reporter made the rounds introducing herself to Team Fleck. She told them her beat is Northampton County and Lehigh County government. She then added she was glad to be away from "those wackos in Lehigh," an obvious reference to its very conservative Board of Commissioners.

"You could get in trouble for that," someone joked.

How can she or her newspaper claim impartiality, while simultaneously condemning Republicans to a bunch of Democrats?

Wouldn't she, and her newspaper, do a better service to the community by just being honest?

By the way, they are a bunch of wackos.

I doubt very much I misunderstood this reporter, but have not spoken to her. I have sent her an email so she can provide her side of the story if she wishes.

Morning Call Biggest Biz in the NIZ

Back in June, I suggested that The Morning Call's location in the middle of NIZland might have some impact on its coverage, especially since I had just heard that developer J.B. Reilly was talking to the newspaper about leasing some of its vacant office space. I'm still waiting to hear from the newspaper's public relations guru on that one. A paper that is supposedly all about transparency in government is strangely reticent to answer questions about its own operations.

Now that the Preliminary Offering Statement for the NIZ bonds has finally been released, there have been two Morning Call articles about it. One points to a real lousy bond rating for the project. The other reports predictions that it will create 7,500 jobs, almost overnight.

Neither article bothers to inform you, however, that the Preliminary Offering Statement lists The Morning Call as the biggest business inside the NIZ, with 207,615 sq. ft. of rentable space. It is also the third highest taxpayer.

More office space than anyone else inside the NIZ, as well as a good tax base. It's pretty clear to me that the paper is considering its options. After all, it's in business to make money.

There's some question whether it's still in business to report news. Its Sunday paper has been coming out on Saturday as a "Sunday Early Edition" over the past three weeks. Blogger Michael Molovinsky has likened its content-free Monday paper to a "grade school Weekly reader."

Does The Morning Call Care About the First Amendment?

Regular readers of this blog know that I make creative use of pictures. It's completely unfair, but it's what I do.

Today's Morning Call account of the lawsuit against Atiyeh includes the picture you see on the left. It's obviously intended to portray the developer as an idiot.

Unlike me, I thought newspapers were supposed to be fair and unbiased and all that crap.

If the paper's purpose is to make Atiyeh look like a fool , the online comments accompanying the story indicate that the Allentown paper has failed. An Express Times poll (admittedly unscientific) indicates that 56% of its readers side with Atiyeh.

I would think a newspaper would be a little more concerned about a public official using strong arm tactics against an individual who is merely exercising his First Amendment rights.

After all, those rights include Freedom of the Press.

Updated Noon: Instead of being concerned about little things like government officials stepping all over citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights, Morning Call columnist Bill White has just published a blog asking for suggestions about how to kick Atiyeh around.

Gee, I remember when newspapers actually cared about the First Amendment.

Express Times To Invade Lehigh County

This is a good thing.

Everyone, including me, likes to complain about the local newspaper. So when The Morning Call decided to put up a pay wall (and you can get around it several ways), I questioned whether it was worth it. In the only place where it has monopoly, Allentown, it seems to be an autopilot. Its coverage in Bethlehem and Easton, where there is competition from The Express Times and Patch, is much better.

It's coverage in Allentown might be getting better, too. The Express Times is invading Lehigh County with two reporters. One will be assigned specifically to Allentown, while the other will cover outlying communities.

The paper is taking applications now.

It's starting out small, and will be web-based for starters. But it will not be the Allentown Times, which stuck me as Morning Call Lite. Instead, the in-your-face style of Editor Joe Owens is going West.

Is The Morning Call's Bill White Really a Glutton?

The Morning Call's Bill White

Every year, The Morning Call forces columnist Bill White to eat his way through Musikfest. And every year, somebody calls him a glutton when it's all over.

It certainly reads like he really puts it away. But did he really? This year, I decided to pay attention to what he actually was eating, and determine how many calories he consumed, using Daily Burn. That site has an inventory of just about every food imaginable. When somethng is not clear, I erred on the side of gluttony.

Adding everything up, Bill's eating adventure this year amounts to a scant 4,997 calories. The average American consumes nearly 4,000 calories per day. I consume that at breakfast. The average Thanksgiving meal, all by itself, is somewhere between 3,000 and 4,500 calories.

So as gluttons go, Bill is a model of moderation.