Leaning left of a
leftist newspaper

On June 3 in Silver Spring, Md., I asked Maryland's Governor Robert Ehrlich:

"Page 1 of the Washington Post had a story headlined: 'From Bush Unprecedented Negativity: Scholars Say Campaign Is Making History With Often-Misleading Attacks.'

"I have seen the 12 pages issued by the Bush-Cheney campaign, where they list and detail nine Washington Post misstatements in this story.

TRENDING: Is this what you voted for, America?

"National Review online reviewed this as: 'An attack on Bush backfires: A criticism of Bush's "negativity" gets it positively wrong.' But the Post has published no apology. Can you tell us how you deal with the Washington Post as the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Maryland?"

GOV. EHRLICH: Well, they're not as bad as the Baltimore Sun! I'll say that.

Secondly, the Post is a very liberal newspaper. Their philosophical orientation, as reflected in the editorial page, is pretty far left. The reporters are competent reporters. But in my view, obviously – the last beat reporter following me, Lori Montgomery, her travels and issues were well-known and documented by people like Blair Lee and others.

In any event, the answer to your question, I deal with reporters; they're professionals, part of my job is to answer questions – sometimes difficult questions, sometimes unfair questions.

But in this day, in this era, fortunately, the majority of the citizens of the state of Maryland do not receive their political messages from newspapers.

This is generational, Les, as you well know. Today it's radio and TV. It's electronic media. And –

QUESTION: Radio, the senior electronic media!

GOV. EHRLICH: The senior electronic media, but also TV. Obviously, it's a very powerful medium.

QUESTION: How about the Internet?

GOV. EHRLICH: The Internet, more generational, obviously a younger generation, yes; the older generation, really no. But as far as political messages, I would argue that radio and TV are still dominant.

As a result, fortunately for someone like me with my views, I am able, to an extent, to overcome, or at least go beyond or above, the daily messages – the daily negative messages from the Post and the Sun.