Baltimore Examiner hires disgraced columist Michael Olesker, bashes bloggers
posted at 7:45 pm on January 2, 2007 by Ian
Most of you don’t live in Baltimore or Maryland, but you might know of Michael Olesker. Olesker was a columnist at the Baltimore Sun until early 2006 when he resigned under charges of plagiarism. Plagiarism is one of the most serious crimes you can commit as a journalist. Besides being a plagiarist, Olesker is an ultra-liberal whose non-plagiarized work was so biased that former MD Gov. Bob Ehrlich banned his staffers from talking to him. And went to court to enforce the order.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Examiner bills itself as “Baltimore’s second opinion,” which is a shot at the liberal NYT parrot otherwise known as the Baltimore Sun. The Examiner’s market hope has been to fill the need that the liberal Sun doesn’t meet among the region’s less moonbatty news consumers.
Well, the Examiner’s shot at the Sun is now a blank: the Examiner has hired the Sun’s ultra-liberal, plagiarizing cast-off. Olesker was hired by the Baltimore Examiner and began writing his new column yesterday. Too bad the Examiner is free or I might have considered canceling my subscription like I did with Baltimore Sun.
In his first column, among attacking President Bush and being nostalgic about Baltimore, Olesker also goes after bloggers:
I hope mine are, too, and I hope they’re spent in newspaper work. In this business, we feel the ground shifting beneath us, and people are nervous. But the ground’s been shifting for decades. I broke in hearing people say television was the future. Now they say it’s the Web or it’s cable.
But CNN and Fox don’t care about a police shooting in Woodlawn, or a hoagie-eating contest in Westminster or waterfront construction in Middle River. And most of the Web sites base their opinions on facts gleaned from newspapers, which have actual reporters. You remove newspapers, the whole flow of information breaks down.
Been reading Joe Rago, Mr. Olesker? The blogger bash trick is one of the oldest in MSM “journalism.” And combined with Bush-bashing? I’m just stunned with his insight. Olesker’s been out of work for nearly a year and this is the most original piece he could come up with? Examiner, if you’re paying the guy a cent, he’s ripping you off.
Blowback
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Maybe he should go and have about 3 gallons of water drained from his head.
quax1 on January 2, 2007 at 7:52 PM
Maybe they deserve each other.
shooter on January 2, 2007 at 7:55 PM
If you can’t cancel your subscription how about posting a list of their advertisers so people who care can boycott them and tell them why?
bdfaith on January 2, 2007 at 8:15 PM
Mr Chuckle Head lives, lies, and lounges in the liberal shower of sunlight and fruitloops. Moonbats should be alerted they once again might fly, if for only a bit.
NEMETI IN SYRACUSE on January 2, 2007 at 8:25 PM
Like Ap’s Jamil Hussein?
right2bright on January 2, 2007 at 8:30 PM
Haven’t heard much from Joey Ragu since he imploded a couple weeks ago.
JammieWearingFool on January 2, 2007 at 8:37 PM
So, this is what is called the Main Stream Media??
I heard they make it up as they go.
Kini on January 2, 2007 at 8:46 PM
Not to be too technical, but the Baltimore Sun sued Gov. Ehrlich, which is how the case got to court.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on January 2, 2007 at 8:46 PM
Ian – RIGHT ON! What a shame that the Examiner gave Olesker one inch of column space and has apparently abandoned its claim to being an alternative. My blood is boiling now!
Having lived Baltimore most of my life I agree – Olesker is far from a Journalist. He is the epitome of a liberal reporter who does not think that anyone anywhere is worthy of another opinion. Of course he is simply on a higher plane of consciousness than most! I am sure that his response today to the Ehrlich situation would be something like –‘Republicans just do not believe in free press……” The Sun sued Ehrlich over his refusing to allow contact with 2 reporters and lost 3 -4 Appeals, the last in a very liberal Federal court.
In my humble opinion the Sun is worse than the NYT. Their Editorial staff has been against Israel for years and is so openly biased it is like a parody. One editorial in particular – after Lance Armstrong’s final Tour de France win was the “tipping point” for me. Since I am a cyclist, a fan and conservative I was a little sensitive. It is well documented that the French Press has always had it in for Lance. They accused him of doping before he won his first Tour. Lance learned the language and bought a house in France to try to improve his standing in France. During his last tour spectators spat at him, on the famed climb at Alp Duez the world could see the slanderous attacks at Lance painted on the steep switchback road up the Alp. During this tour a journalist was caught trying to break in his room, it was though that he was going to plant drugs. All the while Lance Armstrong never said a bad word about the French people, the Tour Organization or the French Press and always spoke of the glorious tradition and history of the TOUR. Of course this Sun Editorial heaped praise on Lance for his accomplishment – AND THEN – well it went something like this. “In the face of world wide opposition to the failed foreign policy of the administration – the French people still treated Lance like a hero.” Is that so you (&&%^$$%$#. After writing several letters to the Editor and Ombudsman that went unanswered I won’t even read the Sun.
In response to Oleskers little rant about CNN – Fox – I ask – HOW MUCH DOES HE CARE ABOUT BALTIMORE? Six years ago the city brought in a Police Commissioner from NY that took the Guiliani approach to crime – murders finally went down from 300+ to 250+. Then Olesker and others at the Sun went to work – racial profiling, too tough, violating civil rights…. They ran him out. In 2006 – Baltimore’s murder count went up again as the population went down. Baltimore’s murder rate – 42-43/100,000 is one of the worst in the country. To compare- New York’s rate was miraculously reduced to 7 under Guliani and LA’s rate under Bratton has been reduced to 13.
The Examiner does have one chance at redemption – FIRE HIS ARS!
iam7545 on January 2, 2007 at 8:57 PM
Olesker is basically a moron. I came to that conclusion many years ago when I suffered his drivel on his occasional TV editorials. His lashing out at bloggers is probably rooted in jealousy. See, Ian, your article here will probably be ready by a hundred times more people than his column in the Examiner. This comment to your article will probably be read by at least 10 times more people than will ever read any of Olesker’s columns. The bloggers are more influential on public opinion than the print columnists these days and there’s a lot of sour grapes among people whose vehicle to the masses has been replaced by a perl script.
Basically the old difference between the columnists and the bloggers are that the columnists do it for money and so they want a higher barrier of entry to block potential competition for their message. To somehow run someone down because of the media carrying the message is silly. Is he really trying to say that words read electronically are of less value than those read from paper? Or is he trying to say that someone writing for free is inherently worth less?
I suppose the owners of the neighborhood grocery said the same thing about supermarkets years ago. Poor guy. Must be tough being a dinosaur.
crosspatch on January 2, 2007 at 10:06 PM
Oh, and by the way, when those in the print media complain about the bloggers, keep in mind they are probably talking about the blogs they read … like Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, Huffington Post … stuff like that. They probably don’t read the right-leaning blogs so they probably aren’t complaining about this side of the blogosphere.
crosspatch on January 2, 2007 at 11:18 PM
Hmmm… So was it Olesker and the newspapers crack staff that broke Rathergate? Did they break the AP fauxtography scandal? Oh wait the newspapers and some news magazines were actually part of that scandal. Oh but we lean of them? Maybe they are upset we broke their monopoly on media and expose them on a regular basis?
Have you ever tried to stop delivery of the Examiner? I did it for a relative that lives of there and after weeks of trying with no success, I had to send a letter to the manager of circulations and threaten to write the paper’s advertisers. That is when they finally stopped delivery.
I say stop them from delivering to your address. Each rejection carries a major sting because a free paper lives and dies by circulation numbers.
IndependentConserv on January 2, 2007 at 11:20 PM
When this a**hole writes, you can smell the fear
Janos Hunyadi on January 3, 2007 at 12:35 AM
Olesker has lain pretty low since “leaving” the Sun. Now he pops back up to blast away @ Pres. Bush and bloggers? “Surprise, I’m baaaack!” But why did he have to stick around here? You’d think the guy would have the sense to leave town and write somewhere else for a while. He must have a lot of pent up rage about the treatment he got to write for the Examiner. Or rather, the compensation package was drying up and he needed to find some work. And I wouldn’t be all surprised if he takes some parting shots at Gov. Erhlich as he leaves office, just for old time sake.
I hope the Examiner realizes their mistake before they lose too much or Olesker makes a fool of himself and them…Oh wait, I think he already has.
JohnnyD on January 3, 2007 at 8:41 AM
Recall Olesker fabricated quotes to racially slander City Councilman Henson;
Terp Mole on January 3, 2007 at 10:52 AM
Please, I prefer Mud Stream Media.
VikingGoneWild on January 3, 2007 at 11:57 AM
How about the new and emerging “LAME Stream Media”?
seejanemom on January 3, 2007 at 12:30 PM