Dec 30, 2020

The Morning Call Incident


The Morning Call, after not paying rent for many months, finally had to give up its space in their former building this fall. Management left behind years of their archives in storage drawers, mostly in microfilm format. 

A young man working for a cleanout company recognized the historical significance of the material, and rescued several of the films from their landfill fate. When he outlined the situation on Allentown Chronicles,  the paper's management became embarrassed, and in turn pressured the contractor to retrieve the material from its rescuer.

Although the posts have been removed from the facebook page,  the comments were interesting.  Some people thought the material should be donated to the local historical society, while others thought that it should go to the reporters/photographers who created it.  Any indignation should have been directed to the Morning Call management, who had discarded the archives in the first place.

UPDATE 9:00am:  I have been contacted backchannel by the Morning Call management, who take offense at this post.  They state that they have met with the local historical society numerous times,  and have given that society archival material for a future show.  
They question my integrity and accuse me of dealing in half truths.  In reality they are a former tenant who discarded storage furniture and its contents.  As for integrity, they will not publish material submitted by myself and others for years,  on topics which they routinely suppress and cover up.

UPDATE 7:00pm: Although the Morning Call had no problem with archival material being hauled to the landfill,  they could not tolerate me being in procession of any of it.  The young man who rescued the material was told not to report to work unless he could bring back that material with him. For the sake of his employment, we arranged for the material to be returned this afternoon. 

12 comments:

  1. What a sad state of affairs. I delivered the Morning Call in the mid 70's when it was a great paper, they even had their own local political cartoonist/satarist Bud Tamblyn

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  2. They should go to a local historical group, no one else cares. It just goes to show what a disaster the news business has become.

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  3. Years ago I asked the assistant to the Executive Editor about old copies of The Morning Call on her desk. She said Ed Miller & she had been buying them at ephemera shows. I took her across Sixth St to the old parking deck & showed her 100's of bound editions of TMC & The Evening Chronicle... plus German language newspapers. They were rescued but God only knows where they are now. There is no sense of ownership when a newspaper becomes part of a chain.

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  4. The Morning Call saying anyone or anything lacks integrity is laughable.They abandoned integrity years ago.

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  5. They really have no legal claim too it after they ordered it to be disposed of !! And as far as the employee he could have sued for the firing if he didn't give it back !!

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  6. I've followed along your Facebook page as this progressed I was impressed by Randy Kraft's response on this. I wish he'd do a long piece on is experience.

    These recorded microfiches should be preserved. These films should be turned over to catalog them in some way. It is really important to preserve stuff the staff spent hundreds of hours reporting on.

    Seems this has became a hot potato. If TMC has any kind of conscience left please do the right thing. Shortly TMC may no longer exist. I'm appealing to who ever is still left in charge to preserve the legacy behind they once held.

    To much to ask?

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  7. I've followed you on both Facebook and here on this blog for years. I want to commend you for your continued contributions to informing people of the Lehigh Valley both historically and those of your opinions. All too many times I and others take this too much for granted. Much appreciated. Thanks.

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  8. LVCI, management of TMC told me back channel that material was given to the historical society. They also claim that "other arrangements" were made. It was however disclosed on Allentown Chronicles that microfilms of the Evening Chronicle were being discarded. I suspect that these disclosures may have inadvertently ended up saving some material.

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    1. It would be really nice if this stuff was readily available online via TMC somehow also. It would certainly make TMC look a lot better in standing to the community.

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  9. My heart is breaking - One of my first memories of my childhood is visiting my Dad at his desk totally strewn with yellow paper and his old Smith-Corona typewriter which was given away without my knowledge. I even remember so many of his colleagues. I have one or two photos of the newsroom and it evokes such pleasant memories.

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  10. Enough time has passed that I feel now I can confidently say I did save some of the material I have found, however it is only half of what I originally saved 2 years ago. Soon enough I will share it when I take it back out of storage again as I've moved from Allentown since. And if anyone's wondering, I lost my job anyway after the I cident and returning some of the stuff.

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  11. anon@7:02: So sorry about you losing the job. FYI, nobody goes back to a post this old, so we're essentially having a private conversation. I would be most willing to use any of the photos in a new post. If you're inclined, you can send another comment with your name and contact info...I won't print it and nobody will see it but me.

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