Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Sun Critic Bashes Robert Novak, A 'Very Dark Force in TV News'
By Matthew Balan | August 18, 2009 | 5:21 PM EDT
David ZurawikDavid Zurawik, the Baltimore Sun’s TV critic, didn’t even wait a full 24 hours after Robert Novak’s death to launch a stinging criticism of the former Crossfire host on the newspaper’s website on Tuesday. Zurawik lamented the apparently contaminated state of political discourse on cable TV and placed much of the blame on Novak in the blog entry titled, “Robert Novak on cable TV: A Polarizing Presence.”

The critic began by announcing his intention to focus on the conservative’s television legacy, instead of his “place...on the political and journalistic map.” He then when right into his attack on Novak, which read like a thinly-veiled critique of the Fox News Channel: “Novak titled his 2007 memoir, ‘The Prince of Darkness,’ and he was indeed a very dark force in cable TV news contributing mightily to the toxic culture of confrontation, belligerence and polarization that so defines cable TV and American political discourse today. There is no way to be nice about his impact on cable TV during its formative years -- and his contributions for the worse to the tone and style of what passes for political conversation today.”
Baltimore Sun: New Indictments of Dem Mayor Dixon 'Blow to Baltimore's Pride'
By Ken Shepherd | August 3, 2009 | 3:47 PM EDT

New indictments on theft and perjury charges handed down against Democratic Mayor <a href="/people/sheila-dixon" target="_blank">Sheila Dixon</a> are a <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-dixon803,0,3065918.story" target="_blank">“blow to Baltimore’s pride”</a> leading “political watchers” to huff in disgust that it’s time to “get this over with,” reports Annie Linskey this morning at BaltimoreSun.com.<br /><br />Of course almost all of the political watchers quoted in the story – the exception being University of Virginia’s Larry J. Sabato –  are, like Dixon, Democratic officeholders:<br /><blockquote>The new indictments issued last week in the City Hall corruption probe has many of Baltimore's political leaders impatient for resolution to a case that has spanned three years and left the city's reputation in limbo.<br /><br />&quot;Most people I talk to are saying 'Let's just get this over with,' &quot; said Baltimore Del. Curtis S. Anderson, a Democrat. &quot;Let's get to trial and see what really happened.&quot;<br />

Baltimore Sun Critic Praises Fox News For Giving Obama the 'Tiny Bit of Scrutiny' He Faces On TV
By Sam Theodosopoulos | June 18, 2009 | 5:51 PM EDT

David Zurawik, a TV critic for The Baltimore Sun, has called for the “TV press...to step back and question how it is covering President Barack Obama.” Moreover, Zurawik gives a laudatory nod to Fox News for its balanced coverage of the President: “I hesitate to write these words, but good for Fox. It must be doing something right, if it has the President complaining about the tiny bit of scrutiny he gets on TV.” The Sun critic is referring to a CNBC interview this past Tuesday, where President Obama complained that "one television station is entirely devoted to attacking" his administration. While he declined to name the network when asked by CNBC interviewer John Harwood, it is undoubtedly the Fox News Network.

Palin Derangement Syndrome Engulfs Baltimore Sun's TV Guy
By Warner Todd Huston | April 30, 2009 | 4:47 AM EDT

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik should check into a clinic somewhere to have his delicate mental balance checked. Maybe they might have some nice medication he can take to temper his Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS)? He has PDS so bad he can't even write about a little reality TV show without indulging unnecessary vitriol and hate.

It's interesting that critic Zurawik gets so filled with hate in such a short space. In fact, the tiny four paragraph "review" spends more time name calling and attacking Governor Palin than it does in discussing the TV show on which she is about to appear; TLC's American Chopper.

BaltSun Runs Obligatory Sad Old People Story About Digital TV Conversion
By Ken Shepherd | February 17, 2009 | 12:08 PM EST

Did you know that elderly people are utterly hopeless sad sacks who can't adapt to change?

That's what readers of the Baltimore Sun were basically greeted with in a February 17 story -- "Some left out in switch from analog to digital signal" -- which dutifully found two elderly women who are unprepared for a partial TV-less existence since two Baltimore stations ditched their analog signals at midnight.

Baltimore Sun reporters David Zurawik and Sam Sessa told the sad tales of 68-year old Janice Stephenson and 84-year old Eula Riggle. Sandwiched between their tales of woe, Zurawik and Sessa quoted a college professor who blamed the federal government for the supposed catastrophe and a politician who complained about the voucher program and the quality of the converter boxes that have been installed for senior citizens.

Yet when it comes to the Sun's actual poster women for TV deprivation, Stephenson and Riggle, the former had planned to start a cable subscription -- she postponed it having heard of the nationwide DTV conversion deadline being pushed back to June -- and the latter bought a converter box, only to end up selling it to someone else.

BaltSun: Md. Gov 'Sets Leaner Course'; Yet O'Malley Anticipating Fed Pork for Budget
By Ken Shepherd | January 30, 2009 | 11:53 AM EST

Reporting on his January 29 State of the State Address in which Maryland's liberal Democratic governor promised new government spending programs and the continuance of a costly state college tuition freeze, the Baltimore Sun headlined the story  "O'Malley Sets a Leaner Course for Maryland."

Yet as Sun reporters Laura Smitherman and Gadi Dechter made clear, O'Malley has made clear he hopes to avoid axing 700 state worker jobs after getting an infusion of cash from Washington:

In his address, the governor repeated his hope that a federal stimulus package moving through Congress would enable the state to avoid many painful cuts. He told lawmakers that he expects the final budget they consider in April to be better than the one he submitted to them. "Why?" O'Malley said. "Two reasons. Barack ... Obama."

So O'Malley's "leaner course" really depends on just how much pork a Democratic Congress and president shovel the reliably blue state's way.

What's more, as Smitherman and Dechter noted deeper in their article, O'Malley has postponed previously planned budget cuts, much to the chagrin of the state's Democratic comptroller, no right-winger he:

CNN Omits Democratic Party Affiliation of Indicted Baltimore Mayor
By Matthew Balan | January 9, 2009 | 3:56 PM EST

Sheila A. Dixon, Baltimore Mayor | NewsBusters.orgDuring a breaking news brief on Friday’s Newsroom program, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips failed to identify the party affiliation of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, who earlier in the day had been indicted on 12 counts related to a corruption probe by Maryland state officials. She did identify Dixon as “the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor” and “the first African-American female to serve as that city’s mayor.”

Phillips began the brief with a lament over corruption in politics in general: “Oh, as if we don’t have enough public corruption within our politics to report, we’ve got another piece of news that [is] just developing right now.” She then reported that the Baltimore mayor had been “indicted on public corruption...12 counts, I’m told -- perjury, theft, misconduct in office.” After describing some of the circumstances into the multi-year investigation, she continued her lament by focusing on the prestige of Dixon: “It’s a shame -- Mrs. Dixon was the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor -- also the -- you know, the first African-American female to serve as that city’s mayor.” The mayor’s Democratic affiliation was neither mentioned by Phillips during her brief, nor by CNN’s on-screen graphics.

Name That Party, Baltimore Edition; Brief Running in WaPo Leaves Out Dem Affiliation
By Ken Shepherd | January 8, 2009 | 11:29 AM EST

If ever there was a new year's resolution the mainstream media could take up, it would be to note the party affiliation of indicted politicians regardless of their political party and especially when noting indictments in urban areas where one party holds a monopoly on city government.

Take for example a January 8 Baltimore Sun article running on page B4 of the same day's Washington Post*, that informed readers that Baltimore City Council member Helen Holton was indicted the day before "on bribery charges related to tax breaks for a high-end building under construction on the [Baltimore] city waterfront." Also indicted in the same investigation was Ronald H. Lipscomb, a real estate developer "with close ties to Mayor Sheila Dixon." 

Neither Dixon's nor Holton's party affiliations were mentioned in the 5-paragraph Baltimore Sun brief, although a longer article available at the paper's Web site noted that Holton is a "West Baltimore Democrat." Dixons' party affiliation was left unmentioned in the Jan. 7 article filed by staffers Annie Linskey and Julie Bykowicz.

BaltSun: 'Bishop Denounces U.S. Abortion Rights'
By Ken Shepherd | November 11, 2008 | 2:02 PM EST

A lot of liberal media bias boils down to word choice and the loaded connotations they can bring in service of a liberal slant. The headline for a November 11 Baltimore Sun story about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was no different."Bishop denounces U.S. abortion rights" read the loaded headline, which evokes in readers the sense of a stern cleric inveighing against a "woman's right to choose" rather than concerned clergy worried about the loss of life and trauma to pregnant mothers caused by abortion.The article itself gave a more nuanced portrait than the stark headline announced, reporting that Francis Cardinal George expressed his concern in terms of the incoming Obama administration's record on "social justice" and "universal human rights":

BaltSun Critic: Stone's 'W.' a 'Train Wreck', Script Like Rehashed Mo Dowd Columns
By Ken Shepherd | October 17, 2008 | 2:52 PM EDT

Finally a movie review that takes on Oliver Stone's "W." on its cinematic merits or rather the lack thereof.

Far from being "illustrated journalism" as Time's Richard Corliss lamented or "sunny and sympathetic" history as Newsweek's Alan Brinkley argued, it's simply an "old-fashioned train wreck," concluded Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow in his October 16 review.

The film critic -- who gave the film just one and a half stars -- cracked that the script sounded like recycled Maureen Dowd cartoons and scoffed at the "uneven pleasure" of seeing "first-rate" actors portraying political figures they "don't respect" (emphases mine):

Its shortcomings are remarkably similar to those of its major characters. Near the beginning, Donald Rumsfeld ( Scott Glenn) proclaims that he doesn't do "nuance." Neither, alas, does Stone.

More Rage From PDS Baltimore Sun Columnist
By P.J. Gladnick | October 13, 2008 | 5:58 PM EDT

Attention Baltimore area paramedics! Please monitor the poll returns on election day in November. If the McCain/Palin team turn out to be victorious, you will have to make an emergency trip to the home of Baltimore Sun columnist, Susan Reimer. As chronicled a few weeks ago by your humble correspondent, Reimer is in the throes of extreme PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome). Here is but one example of her deranged rantings at the beginning of September:

Palin-Smearing Baltimore Sun Columnist Whines Readers Being Mean to Her
By Warner Todd Huston | September 6, 2008 | 6:49 AM EDT

Susan Reimer, columnist for the Baltimore Sun, is shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that people took exception to her tactless bashing of Governor Sarah Palin in her September 1 column, "A woman -- but why this woman?" In fact, Reimer is so upset that people where exercised enough to drop her a note, give her a call, or write an email about her baseless smearing of Palin that she says in her September 5 column that she feels "frightened." Do you want some cheese and crackers to go with that whine, Reimer?

On Monday, I wrote a column criticizing the McCain campaign for what I saw as a cynical attempt to gather in unhappy women voters by naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his vice presidential candidate and for exploiting the poignant story of her youngest child to appease the Republican Party's pro-life base... And then the storm began.

Reimer was shocked to find that her substance free, lie filled attack on John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin generated "More than 8,200 comments were posted to the column on The Baltimore Sun's Web site. I received more than 700 personal e-mails and about 50 phone calls."