Feb 11, 2025

Hunting For Non-Partisan In The Lehigh Valley

I owe Robert Orenstein for a snicker* when I read that his blog, Armchair Lehigh Valley, is non-partisan. He was the gatekeeper for the Morning Call opinion page. Almost all my submissions were rejected by him, because they were either too long for a letter, or too short for Another View. Lengthening or shortening them didn't help me get pass the gate :). Once, he actually told me that my piece only represented my opinion.  Imagine, sending an opinion to the Opinion Page?

His newsletter articles are now being printed by the Morning Call, and they in turn are promoting the newsletter. The newsletter is free, but he does have his hand out for donations.  It was under Orenstein's tenure that the three amigos were installed on the Another View page as regulars...Jennings, Cunningham and Iannelli. They're still there.

Those pieces of mine which did appear resulted from my annoying persistence. Several times I had to go over his head to be published. I do agree with him that there is a need for a local non-partisan outlet for local political news. I like to think that you're reading it here.

* a silent laugh

4 comments:

  1. Seems to me, if the Morning Call could finally wise-up and become more non-partisan we might ALL be happier.

    Politically, the Morning Call has reduced itself to government propaganda promoting only one side, Democrat. That’s not serving in the public interest, just half the public’s interest, now maybe even less.

    It’s no wonder legacy news group media is dying a slow death in favor of smaller, more independent outlets. The one-time ‘big boys’ are losing viewers, listeners, and readers at a rapid pace.

    We just don’t need stale, older, one-sided opinions anymore.

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    1. anon@6:03: I don't think you'll see any change. My take is that they're trying to cobble out a daily product, with a small staff. They're borrowing articles from sister papers in their chain, and utilizing material from former employees that were bought out in previous downsizes, such as Orenstein and White.

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  2. Mike, I had my own runs ins with him especially while serving on the ASD board. He was clearly partisan and allowed this partisanship to guide his thinking on what to publish and what he would allow writers to say on his opinion page. In short, Dems got a pass while non Dems were held to a his partisan standard. Robert may presently view himself as non partisan in contrast to his party that most agree has gone insane. Let him think what he wants, but hold him to account for once allowing local Dems so much license to do so much damage to our city.

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  3. The average person in the Lehigh Valley under the age of 40 would wonder" "The Morning Call, what's that?"

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