I have often complained about the Morning Call's go to people. They ask the same people over and over for their opinion about certain topics....Tony Iannelli about business, Alan Jennings about the poor, Chris Borick about politics and Ce-Ce Gerlach about the NIZ and affordable housing.
While Ce-Ce came in fourth in the May 18th mayoral primary, many had considered her the person to beat. While the separate candidate election treatment was fair enough, Ce-Ce's name had long become a regular in the paper.
When the news broke today about Ce-Ce being charged by District Attorney Jim Martin for her less than responsible action with a runaway youth, frankly, I suspected that the paper had purposefully sat on the story until after the election. However, I've been assured by the reporter that although the allegations were widely known on facebook and O'Hare's Ramblings, they could not be confirmed independently by the paper.
I do believe the reporter that he couldn't go with a story that couldn't be confirmed. Unrelated to the Ce-Ce story, there will now be a new reporter for the city (Allentown) beat, because the current one is coincidentally taking a management offered buyout.* He hadn't been on the job long enough to have what I would consider institutional knowledge of the city or players. The same was true for his predecessors...it has been at least a decade since anyone had the beat long enough to know the back stories. That problem with the paper only gets worse.
* The city beat reporter's departure actually occurred this past Friday, but he is credited as a contributor to today's MC story.
UPDATE 5:25 PM: The Morning Call story has been amended with quotes from both Gerlach and her attorney, but with no indication of such amendment. Ironically, Gerlach's attorney calls the charges politically motivated. From my viewpoint, the editor not insisting on the story before the election, despite it breaking on social media in early May, was politically motivated.
Blogger LVCI also reports on the Gerlach case
UPDATE JUNE 30 1:58AM: In addition to the Morning Call updating the story, they also changed the headline to include Gerlach's denial of any criminal act. After using Gerlach as one of their go to people for so long, the charges must be awkward for the paper. Blogger Bernie O'Hare also notes the paper's shortcomings in regard to Gerlach in his post today.
I've been assured by the reporter, that although the allegations were widely known on facebook and O'Hare's Ramblings, they could not be confirmed independently by the paper
ReplyDeleteIn one word... Bullshit. There was plenty to work with there. Any decent editor would go with what was being talked about everywhere before the primaries. Then seek responses (or lack thereof). Same goes with WFMZ. We all know both regularly screen blogs and Facebook. The public no longer can rely on either one of them. If they want to be a successful business model they need to do the job people expect of them. Otherwise they've outlived their usefulness. Which is now pretty much the situation they now find themselves in.
What really needs to be in their sights is what's going on in the ASD. Another negative thing they're almost ignoring entirely.
LVCI, they certainly have purposefully politically assassinated people in the past, myself included. While I believe this reporter was sincere, the paper is certainly inconsistent with such policy. and all candidates have not treated the same over the years. With the reporter's short life span at the paper, the only constant is the editor, who has been there forever. I think he is who is responsible for the unequal treatment.
ReplyDeleteMs Gerlach seems to have made a series of bad decisions. I hope She realizes She is not mature enough to be on City Council
ReplyDeleteI do not generally like to say whether a paper should cover a story. In this instance, the paper had an obligation to its readers and failed. Once Gerlach admitted to Whitney that she dropped this boy off at tent city, it became a story. If not then, it became a story when I reported that the Lehigh County DA was investigating. What we need to remember is that this is about child abuse. When there are credible allegations against someone who has a child’s welfare in her hands, we need to know.
ReplyDeleteSelf reflection doesn't appear to be part of her "skill-set". The Morning Call made her out to be more than she was. Look at how Allentown has benefited from her so called wisdom.
ReplyDeleteMs Gerlach should shut up ,plead guilty and get ARD.All the tax money that funds troubled youth and She ends up taking clients to homeless encampments
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when Sinclair Group - an ultra-conservative, very pro-Trump media outlet- was interested in buying the Morning Call. They would have made this story, and her politics, a nation-wide issue.
ReplyDeleteYour writing makes me wonder if this new owner also promotes ultra-conservative views, and whether or not it is purposeful to publish this the way it's getting published.
I am repeatedly seeing this story on independent news feeds, which makes me suspicious that it might be be getting spoonfed to these indys, to perpetuate the story in the press.