Again, a bit screwed either way
I can't say you're stepping on the newspaper's first amendment rights by refusing to talk to specific employees of the newspaper.
On the other hand, Ehrlich goes for the "liberal bias" bullshit because he knows how many people's brains shut off as soon as the hear (or say!) the term.
The quote of note:
In subsequent radio appearances, Mr. Ehrlich contended that Mr. Nitkin and Mr. Olesker had "no credibility" and had fabricated quotes. He said his ban was "meant to have a chilling effect" on their reporting.
Maryland Governor Is Sued Over Step Against Journalists
By JAMES DAO
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Baltimore Sun filed suit against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland on Friday, asserting that he violated the paper's First Amendment rights by prohibiting state employees from talking to two Sun journalists.
The suit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, intensifies a feud between The Sun and Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican who contends that the 167-year-old newspaper has a liberal bias.
Friction between the two dates at least to the 2002 campaign for governor, when The Sun endorsed Mr. Ehrlich's Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. But it has sharpened significantly since early October, when The Sun began running a series of articles raising questions about plans by the Ehrlich administration to sell state forest land to a developer.
On Nov. 18, Mr. Ehrlich issued a directive forbidding anyone in the governor's office or any state agency from speaking to David Nitkin, The Sun's Maryland statehouse bureau chief, and Michael Olesker, a columnist.
