Maryland: Towson University

--Richard E. Vatz

Expropriation of a political opponent’s issues and primary values is both a time-honored and time-dishonored practice. It is a method of weakening one’s opponents’ constituency by taking away their causes célèbres and claiming them as one’s own. Thus, in Maryland, we have seen serial attempts and some putative successes at such expropriation by Mayor and then Governor Martin O’Malley regarding such issues as electric rate increases and slots, issues that correctly attributed would benefit Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich and Republicans. In cases such as these and others, expropriating politicians fool the public into thinking that the issue or value in question has been historically sponsored by them, when in reality it was his or her opponent or opponent’s party that was the leader on the position favored by the public.

--Richard E. Vatz

For those of us interested in media criticism (and for those of us who have taught a course \called\ “Media Criticism,” for, say, about 15 years), there is no better a consistent source than CNN’s “Reliable Sources” every Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The show is intelligent, confronting serious (and some non-serious) media controversies of the week, and it very rarely misses critical issues, although it did this week, about which more below.

One of the problems in having the media criticize itself, as is the case on this show, is that many media sources claim media liberalism is understandable, since the watchdog press covers powerful institutions and interests, and such institutions and interests are more often conservative than liberal.

-- Richard E. Vatz

In the ignominious history of politicians who used regular newspaper columnists as mouthpieces, sometimes in return for access, now comes Barack Obama and E.J. Dionne, Obama’s Mini-Me. Other presidents have had similar arrangements, including Walter Winchell and, in perhaps his only near scandal, columnist George F. Will was accused of covertly priming presidential candidate Ronald Reagan for a debate which he (Will) then evaluated without explicitly mentioning his role as debate aide. In the ensuing years Will has never had a hint of such questionable ethics. (On the other side, we have had official mouthpieces who became traitors after leaving their positions, such as Scott McClellan, former press secretary to George W.

-- Richard E. Vatz

Weeks following the zenith of the outcry over the contemptible “Barack the Magic Negro” CD, first aired in 2007 on Rush Limbaugh’s show, which was sent by one of his opponents to the Republican National Committee and others, Michael Steele has won a toughly fought battle to be Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

This is not only good news for the Republican Party and conservatives throughout the United States, it is also good news for Maryland, the state of origin of the first African-American elected to statewide office in the "Free State.