I was told about this morning, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a chance to read about it. From The Baltimore Sun.

The Ehrlich administration has taken the unusual step of banning all state officials from speaking with two Sun journalists, who they say are “failing to objectively report” on state issues.

The governor’s press office sent a memo Thursday to all state public information officers and to the governor’s staff ordering them to not speak with State House Bureau Chief David Nitkin or columnist Michael Olesker.

“Do not return calls or comply with any requests,” press secretary Shareese N. DeLeaver wrote in the memo. The ban is in effect “until further notice.”

“There’s no hiding the fact of The Sun’s distaste for the results of this past election,” said Greg Massoni, also a press secretary to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. “And they are perfectly entitled to that opinion. We have a grave problem with their editorial page taking over the news division, and apparently that’s what’s happened.”

Sun Editor Timothy A. Franklin, the top newsroom executive, called such a suggestion “ridiculous on its face.” He said, “The editorial board and the newsroom are distinctly separate departments of the company, on separate floors of the building. We don’t know what they’re going to write about, and they don’t know what we’re going to write about. And that’s as it should be.”

Frankly Olesker is an opinion columnist, so I don’t really understand the point of that ban. People who support Ehrlich should realize Olesker is a Democratic partisan hack, so I don’t quite understand why they talk to him in the first place. But I can fully understand Some people would claim that it will be harder for The Baltimore Sun to have balanced articles if they don’t get both sides of an issue, but my point would be – What difference would it make. The Baltimore Sun has never had any interest in publishing balanced stories to begin with. Whether or not they can talk to Ehrlich’s people, the Sun is going to go out of it’s way to slant stories against Ehrlich anyway. In my view, this ban is more cosmetic than an actual attempt to change how The Baltimore Sun reports. The Baltimore Sun has been and will always be a megaphone for the Maryland Democratic Party, whether they can talk to Ehrlich or not. But I am glad that Ehrlich is taking a public stand on The Baltimore Sun’s extreme left-wing bias on their news page. This kind of issue needs a more public face to it and it is good finally see someone like Ehrlich make a huge deal about it.

Just like I predicted The Washington Post’s endorsement of John Kerry way back in May, I am also willing to make a rather bold predition two years before the 2006 election. The Baltimore Sun will endorse the Democratic candidate for Governor, no matter who it turns out to be.