The Morning Call's coverage of the Cedar Beach Park shooting incident started and ended with quotes from Pastor/Activist Gregory Edwards, who wasn't there, on the relationship between poverty and violence. In between, there were quotes from Enid Santiago, who wasn't there. Although Edwards' grandchildren were in the park(not him), so were hundreds of other children. Enid Santiago was a candidate for state representative, who didn't even win the primary election.
Why is the Morning Call featuring these people in an article about a seminal incident in Allentown? And certainly, a drive-by shooting in an Allentown park is a seminal incident or a low point. Although nobody was actually shot, that was only by a blessing. The shooter was across the creek and bridge from the basketball courts, shooting a handgun. Nearby was the Destination Playground, full of children.
The Morning Call has been obsessed with what they promote as the new leaders in Allentown. As a paying subscriber to the paper, I can tell them that I had enough, too much already, about their view of new leaders in Allentown. All I want to know is who the shooter was arraigned before, and what bail was set? It couldn't be too high!
artwork shown above by Mark Beyer
Like it or not, it should be abundantly clear that we no longer have a local newspaper. That ship sailed when the Call closed its offices at 6th and Linden, which means that "reporters" can now literally phone it in from outside the city.
ReplyDeleteThat surely means that instead of actually going out on the ground and getting the story from people that were actually there, they will rely more on their stable of Allentown "leaders" and other contacts to shape their stories.
And stories they are. You have posted countless articles about what the Call has purposely ignored to further their narrative, to the point where the library would most appropriately place the Call in their fiction section.
On that note, I wanted to mention the article about the new facade grant program coming out of City Hall. I've been around long enough to have seen countless revitalization programs for Hamilton Street, but wasn't the enormous cost of the NIZ (to state taxpayers) supposed to bring more private investment into the entire downtown area, even beyond the NIZ borders?
If the NIZ can't even revitalize Hamilton Street without more government money, how could it possibly spill over into the surrounding neighborhoods downtown? As you've noted previously, that's a question that you won't see from "reporters" in our "local" paper.