Media Monday 070702

July 2, 2007 by Cato  
Filed under Maryland, Media, Salisbury Politics, Wicomico Politics

It appears that the “Tilghman Times” team of Bassett and Sahler are up to their old tricks. They must be pining for the return of Laren Hughes Hall to the city beat. Since I didn’t have time to post this Sunday I can’t link to the articles until they show up in the archives, but I can thank the “Tilghman Times” blogs for giving you at least a taste.

The first tidbit is an inside piece allowing the Times to crow about a basket of awards they won from the AP. The most notable for me was an award for an article written by ex-City Reporter Laren Hughes Hall about the local blogosphere. Remember, while I have never met Ms. Hall, there is no love lost between us. I consider her the worst hack in the history of the “Tilghman Times”, and that’s saying something. If this is the same article that I posted about last New Years then I can only comment that the AP’s standards have more than diminished. In this article Ms. Hall printed every misrepresentation coming from Barrie Tilghman’s mouth.  On New Year’s Ms. Hall wrote a piece that actually amended some inaccuracies but failed to disclose the mistakes. Remember, this is the same woman who would print any error coming out of Mike Dunn’s mouth and portraying it as Gospel.  My biggest question is why didn’t the paper submit her January series entitled “Attack Debbie Campbell”?   I’m sure that Greg and Erick are reminiscing about how those were the days.

My second quarrel with Sunday’s edition was a front page piece written by Joe Gidjunis (the blog entry is here). Mr. Gidjunis highlights a recent error by Wicomico County Attorney Ed Baker and then questions whether or not we need a county legal department. My quarrel isn’t with Joe, it’s with his editors. If Messrs. Bassett and Sahler are at all aware of local politics they would know that it is not Ed Baker who regularly commits errors, but Salisbury City Attorney Paul Wilber. What is truly lamentable is that I don’t believe that either man is stupid. Of course they know about Mr. Wilber’s performance as Barrie Tilghman’s lap dog. The man has wasted taxpayer money on items such as the old mall re-zoning appeal, billed the city for a hearing that questioned Terry Cohen’s city residency when he admitted that there was no question, as well as a host of other errors.

If Greg and Erick were serious about their jobs they would have approved a story using Paul Wilber as the focus instead of Mr. Baker. Mr. Baker made one error. Since he’s human, I’m willing to bet that he’s made several during his tenure as County Attorney. Of course, he’s only one of, if not the, most well regarded County / City Attorneys in Maryland.

However, a pattern began emerging last December when a Republican controlled County Council and County Executive Rick Pollitt took office – portray county issues in a bad light to help shield Barrie Tilghman and her dirty little guild from as much scrutiny as possible. The county government was attacked for not extending the bond TIF. Several articles were published inferring racism at the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress. However, where was the coverage of the old mall not being demolished when Barrie Tilghman, Mike Dunn, Gary Comegys, et al said “TRUST ME”? Where is the coverage of the new fire HQ? The property was purchased at a price almost four times what the sellers paid four months earlier and it’s very possible that the city will have to abandon the building soon after completion because of methane leaks. The list goes on … and on … and on.

One day, the Lower Shore may have a newspaper that really does deserve an award. But it is not this day.

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