When the Lancaster public was informed of the local transaction of the century, that Lancaster General Health was on the cusp of completing a merger into the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the news was generated not by LNP but from an Associated Press report entitled “LG Health Nears Deal To Join Penn Medicine.”
In “In our words: EPA mandate approach a washout in Lancaster”, LNP editorializes against The Environmental Protection Agency requiring a consent decree that would commit the city to years of court oversight of its efforts to reduce sewage overflows into the Conestoga River. It huffs and puffs but doesn’t give a scintilla of evidence that Mayor Rick Gray and Planner Randy Patterson have sought to significantly address the scope of the problem over their ten years in office.
Concerning the merger that will remove a billion dollar asset from the Lancaster community, all that we are told is the parties “have signed a nonbinding letter of intent and that the university board has authorized the negotiation of a definitive agreement.” This is legal speak for the deal is done.
According to the Associated Press, “LG Health spokesman John Lines said the organizations expect that to happen within weeks, and terms of the proposed deal will remain confidential until both parties approve it.
“However, Lines said, LG Health has kept key stakeholders including ‘business and community leaders and federal and state officials and our employees and medical and dental staff” apprised of its discussions over the past months.
“ ‘We’ve talked at a very high level, answered questions that we’ve heard in one-on-one meetings as well as small group meetings since October, and the feedback has been predominantly positive,’ he said. ‘Questions such as why is this happening, what’s going on in the industry, and what are the drivers behind what we hope to accomplish.’ ”
“Kept them apprised?” “Feedback has been predominantly positive?” Where is the feasibility study from a national independent authority? And when one is made, why isn’t it shared with the public?
And to whom are they speaking? “Keeping apprised” isn’t a dialogue. And apparently it is to a small white, establishment clique that amounts to themselves!!! Doesn’t the public get any chance to vet the proposed merger?
Concerning the proposed EPA mandate, LNP rationalizes: “Since 1998, when Lancaster reached a long-term control plan with the EPA, the city has spent $150 million on gray and green infrastructure improvements, according to Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city’s director of public works.
“Efforts including pump-station upgrades have increased to 84 percent the amount of sewage captured and treated at the city’s treatment plant. And after an upgrade of its largest pump station that is currently underway, it will hit 86 percent — above the 85 percent goal set in the 1998 agreement.”
The City is justifying almost a decade of fig leaves in the form of roof gardens and porous paving by attributing almost twenty years of department spending as proof of cooperation. See “Rick Gray’s EPA chickens are coming home to roost.”
So where is LNP’s reporting on both of these critical matters? In Gil Smart and Tim Stuhldreher they have the investigating reporting muscle to dig into the LGH merger and whether City efforts to meet EPA requirements have been adequate in recent years. Why aren’t they being used? In fact, why do we hear so little from them these days?
LNP wants to avoid making any waves by reporting another side. They simply publish handouts. It wants to ‘get along by going along.’
LNP no longer feels any responsibility for enlightening and possibly defending the public. It’s only concern is whatever works best for the cash register.
Now we know what it is to run a business and to meet a payroll. But if you are a doctor, you have to place the wellbeing of your patient ahead of how you can most profitably spend the next half hour of your time. And if you are going to be a newspaper responsible for local news, then you should provide essential information to your subscribers.
LNP has totally abnegated this responsibility.
Shame on them.
And shame on the public for not speaking out against the ongoing rape and pillage of Lancaster’s wealth through the development of the Convention Center, the purchase of the Harrisburg incinerator at a bloated price, the CRIZ program that enables private interests to benefit from future tax revenues, the gross mishandling of the storm / sanitary sewer pollution problems, and the imminent transfer of the Lancaster General Hospital, a local public charity worth a billion dollars, to the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Lancaster used to be a prosperous, prideful community. “Used to be.”
LNP ‘used to be’ a newspaper worth subscribing too, also!!
That all changed when they formed the unholy alliance of Penn Square Partners; whose primary objective is to make untold profits at the expense of hard-working City and County taxpayers.
Unfortunately, there is no one today who will take a stand against this ‘rape and pillage’ Partnership. Those in the past who tried; were publicly tarred and feathered by LNP, in order for PSP to continue to ‘get their way’ at any cost (except of course, to PSP).
Quite simply, LNP is no longer a newspaper that anyone can trust to bring unbiased and factual information to the public. They have simply lost their way. The Steinman founders would be totally embarrassed by what this current generation of ownership/management has done.
I suspect actually producing “news” is just the necessary means of acquiring readership to justify advertising rates. It is all about them generating revenue from advertising and marketing.
The paper’s readers are not their true customer, just a a necessary means of doing business. Reader want more actual news and real reporting not just listing information about community events.
Readers aren’t the ones requesting more colors throughout all the pages of the paper. The new Mechanicsburg printing facility is modifying their press to add more color to all pages to satisfy LNP’s ability to charge more for advertising.
The million in savings they will reap by not producing the production of the paper themselves will not relate to anything the end reader/subscriber will notice in terms of the quality and quantity of content.
What really differentiates the daily LNP, Advertiser or Merchandiser type publication? They all sell ads first and fill up the rest of the pages with already existing local facts and events. To actually produce any investigative or thought provoking news story is just an unnecessary expense. The bottom line is their bottom line.
Is there is minimum standard required to be considered a newspaper?