O’Malley Locks Out Conservative Media

Like his pal Barack Obama, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley pledged to run the most transparent administration in history.  Well, we all saw those health care negotiations on C-SPAN – right?  Now the O’Governor is keeping media outlets that don’t tow the party line from attending State House press conferences. Oh yeah – WE THE PEOPLE are excluded as well.

As O’Malley’s poll numbers have dropped over the past year, the Governor’s press office has excluded media and citizens from press conferences in the Governor’s Reception Room. They have also established new barriers for obtaining press credentials for the State House press corps.

Reporter Hassan Giordano of the Baltimore Independent Examiner describes his frustration with the Governor’s interference of an open and transparent government in Maryland and, specifically, the lack of access to the Governor unless you are one of the few favored media representatives known to write or produce pro-Administration pieces:

"While certain members of the Press, including myself, have been stalled and consistently delayed our press credentials, due to some new process the O’Malley administration has put in place, many are questioning why now? As if not already known as the liberal oppressor of all things conservative, Governor O’Malley is now playing games with certain reporter’s credentials, who are too closely tied to conservative publications."

Maryland voters shouldn’t be surprised.  Sunlight has always been considered a powerful disinfectant.  When you are playing fast and loose with the taxpayers’ dollars, as O’Malley has been doing for three years, sunlight is the last thing you want.

What is really depressing is that the liberal Maryland media is putting up with this.

H/T:  Maryland Senate Republican Caucus

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Media Monday, 02/01/2010 – Spinning Travel Abuse at the WCBOE

Tracey Sahler, “Public Information Liaison” (that’s “Spin Doctor at Taxpayer Expense” for you non-bureaucrats out there) for the Wicomico County Board of Education (WCBOE) really earned her pay this week.  She’s proving the old adage “It’s not what you know, but who you know” is definitely true when it comes to the WCBOE and the Daily Times.  Thanks to her relationship with the paper’s managing editor (her husband, Erick Sahler), Daily Times reporter Greg Latshaw will not only print the WCBOE’s spin, but their lies as well.

Sunday, the paper ran a front page story – “Wicomico School Travel Expenses Scrutinized”.  This piece was in obvious reaction to pieces ran last week by both Delmarva Dealings and Salisbury News outlining just a few of the abuses found by Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway.  Holloway has spent months attempting to get this information from the WCBOE and has been stonewalled every step of the way.  He has requested copies of the receipts for specific line items and has still not received those!  Yet, what was Mr. Latshaw’s lead for this puff piece?

The Wicomico County school system is viewing every out-of-town conference or business lunch with increased scrutiny as it prepares for big budget reductions.  "We would anticipate the (seminars and conferences) budget to be substantially and significantly reduced," said Superintendent John Fredericksen.

The WCBOE has refused to cut this year’s travel budget – instead choosing to cut from SPECIAL ED!  They have been caught using taxpayer funds for trips to Hooter’s, junkets to Vegas (including tickets to a Toby Keith concert), and dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse!  It appears that the taxpayers have even been charged for Superintendent John Fredericksen and Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt to have lunch.  Yet, Latshaw (and his boss Erick Sahler) want the public to believe that the WCBOE is attempting to be a faithful steward of the taxpayers’ money.

Fredericksen Lies … Again

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Media Monday – 20100104

While Maryland Sen. Andy Harris prepares to formally announce his candidacy to unseat freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD), the Daily Times has decided to get an early start in promoting Kratovil’s re-election.

Starting off with a front page puff piece by Greg Latshaw in Sunday’s edition, the Daily Times makes their strategy for 2010 clear.  Kratovil and his Gannett allies are having a tough time defending his voting record, so the decision has been made to promote Kratovil as “independent” and lowering expectations for Kratovil.  This was a dominant theme of his 2008 campaign and Kratovil and the media are hoping that it might work again.

At least Latshaw’s piece was factual, if a tad fawning.  Sunday’s inside piece by Nicole Guadiano simply re-wrote Kratovil’s voting record.  The three biggest votes that Kratovil has cast to date are on the Obama PORKULUS bill, Cap & Tax, and ObamaCare.  Guadiano claims that Kratovil voted against PORUKLUS.  This simply isn’t true.  Kratovil did vote against the original House version but VOTED FOR the bill that was actually adopted.  (I wonder if DT Managing Editor Erick Sahler will print a correction on that one?)  Kratovil’s vote on Cap & Tax was neatly buried in the middle of the article.  As for voting against ObamaCare, we’ll give Kratovil SOME credit for that vote.  However, voters know that it was their dedication (exhibited by attending town hall meetings and calling Kratovil’s office) which yielded that vote.  Besides, Kratovil still has an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama when the reconciliation bill is voted on.

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A Vote for Deeds IS a Vote for HIGHER TAXES

Bearing Drift’s Brian Kirwin hit the nail on the head – the Washington Post’s surprising (yeah, right!) endorsement of Democrat Creigh Deeds is BECAUSE Deeds promises to raise taxes.

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3rd Quarter Blog Rankings

The Delmarva blogosphere continues to grow.  Back in August we published a few statistics about blogs based in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  We promised to start doing a quarterly report.  Here it is.

For each state we’ve listed a cross-section of blogs with their Alexa ranking and growth (or decline) in page views over the last 90 days.  We have also included info on several newspapers in each state.  Note that this listing is not comprehensive, but serves simply to give an overview.  If you are interested in seeing the Alexa statistics about a particular site that is not listed here, simply go to Alexa and enter the site’s URL under “Site Info”.  You can even compare up to four sites.

Here are the 3rd Quarter, 2009 Delmarva Blog Rankings:

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Stoplight Cameras in Fruitland?

Right Coast Girl, the blog of local AFP leader Julie Brewington, reports that stoplight cams are coming to Fruitland.  Stoplight cams are highly controversial, particularly in conservative counties such as Wicomico.  What makes this especially interesting is that this blog post went up 3 days before Greg Latshaw’s article in this morning’s Tilghman Times.  Latshaw implies that there are no plans to put up stoplight cams on the Shore.

Good work Greg!

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“Daily Times” Becomes the Story in TapeGate

Salisbury has become one of the most dangerous cities in America.  The spendthrift policies of the Barrie Tilghman administration has led Salisbury to the its own fiscal crisis.  A newly elected mayor has shown an inability or unwillingness to control his own police chief.  You would think all of these would make important and interesting stories.  However, Salisbury’s own Daily Times (and one of its reporters) has become “the story”.

Salisbury councilwoman Debbie Campbell held a press conference Thursday afternoon to answer attacks by former(?) mayor Barrie Tilghman and Salisbury police chief Allan Webster.  As Campbell was preparing for the press conference she received an email from Tilghman Times reporter Laura D’Alessandro.  While the first half of D’Alessandro’s email sounded almost like a journalist, it was the last half that showed her true vocation – sleazy attack dog for the Barrie Comegys party :

According to a letter from Chief Allan Webster to former Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman on April 3, 2009, you told the Chief you didn’t know anything about the issue. This information is false.  Are you aware this is a misdemeanor under section 9-501 of Maryland state criminal law?  How and why were you able to install surveillance equipment in your office as a private citizen?  Is this a standard service offered by SPD?  What is on the tape?  Are you covering the burglary? (all emphasis mine)

How does D’Alessandro know that the information from Campbell is false?  If D’Alessandro is to be believed about the memo from SPD officer Mark Tyler then there is a sizable credibility gap between Campbell and Tyler.  Campbell has faithfully served the citizens of Salisbury while (again, according to D’Alessandro) Tyler has admitted to violating police procedure and possibly committing an illegal act.  Sorry Laura, the objective reader will have to side with Campbell on this one.

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When You Can’t Argue … Ridicule

If you live on the Northern Neck AND you oppose ObamaCare, you’re just dumber than a sack of hair.  At least that’s the view of certain members of Virginia’s lefty blogosphere.  Why not?  The Obamamaniacs can’t win the argument on merit, so let’s ridicule the good voters in Virginia’s First District.

It seems that Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) had a town hall meeting in Warsaw.  It appears that most of the overflow crowd was opposed to ObamaCare.  According to some probable “come here” on the Daily Kos (and repeated on Fred2Blue), these were just about the dumbest folk he’s ever come across:

Unbelievable.  My first exposure to true lunacy.

People who live in glass houses …

Were there a few people there who were a little misinformed?  Probably, but no more than you would find at your local Democrat committee meeting.  Sure, I’m a little dismayed when people take everything that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or even Mark Levin say and treat it as gospel.  Unfortunately, that’s the way of world.  As an example, when Democrats attempt to argue that the “public option” isn’t a form of socialized medicine they are either lying, deluded, or simply parroting (the vast majority) what they have been told.  Yet, it would be rude for us to call them stupid.

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The Schizophrenic Salisbury Grinch

I don’t like kicking a guy when’s he down, but few people deserve it more than Jonathan Taylor, house blogger of Salisbury’s Barrie Comegys party.  Still facing criminal charges after being slapped with a judicial order related to his harassment of local resident Donna Ennis, Taylor just can’t shut up and let things blow over.

Taylor is infamous for promising to stop some of his nastier behavior and then simply doubling down.  C’mon, when you go after people’s kids (as he has done with the children of Salisbury councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen) we have moved from bad taste to pathology.

Since being slapped by a judge last week, Taylor has since promised that his site would be going “invitation only” (a means of libeling decent folk without them being able to see it) to reneging on that claim and promising that his comments would no longer be moderated and that anonymous comments would no longer be permitted.

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Virginia – the Most Purple State in the Union?

This morning I was torn as to whether or not I would buy a copy of this morning’s Washington Post.  However, as I glanced at the front page of the Outlook section I saw that my old friend Frank Atkinson had an op-ed.  Case closed.

Besides being a genuinely good guy, Frank is one of the sharpest minds of his generation.  Phi Beta Kappa at Richmond, Order of the Coif at Virginia Law, an early member of the Federalist Society, a veteran of the Reagan Justice Department and counselor to Gov. George Allen, Frank is a top notch constitutional lawyer and the author of two books.

His analysis of this fall’s statewide campaign is excellent, if slightly flawed.  Atkinson begins his op-ed by quoting the great Guy Friddell:

In Virginia, even the mountains are moderate.

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