Professor Vatz, I couldn't agree with you more & THANX for your response to this awful article. I wonder where some of these folks come from?

While I disagreed with a lot of what Ron Smith espoused, and I also often disagree with you, Dr. Vatz, you are right on with this. Ron Smith was a good and honorable man. He was intelligent and fair. Thank you for our rebuttal.
To call Ron Smith an anti-semite is disgusting.

My first thought was, what kind of man attacks a man after he has died? A craven one/a coward. Not one I care to give my respect to. Issachar Friedmann could not have known Ron Smith much less listened to him or read his words.

It has long been popular to demonize the media, especially pundits: current example, the attacks of Newt Gingrich. Thank you, Prof. Vatz, for setting the record straight on Ron Smith — and for doing it so eloquently.

AL Forman
Managing Editor
Voice of Baltimore

I never really listened to Smith, but Sobran and Buchanan are certainly anti-Semites. Hell, even William F Buckley thought Sobran was an anti-Semite. While it may or may not be accurate to call Smith an anti-Semite, he certainly associated with them.

There is an ole saying that goes if you have to resort to name calling you have already lost the argument.

Mr. Baker, I would take the fifth on this subject. You have the right to remain silent and judging by the content your comment I would suggest that route.

Smith stated that he liked the political opinions of Sobran, Sobran notably was fired from the National Review by Buckley for being an anti-Semite and later spoke at Holocaust-denial conferences. Sobran, in one of his speeches said:

"I am not, heaven forbid, a “Holocaust denier.” I lack the scholarly competence to be one. ... Why on earth is it 'anti-Jewish' to conclude from the evidence that the standard numbers of Jews murdered are inaccurate, or that the Hitler regime, bad as it was in many ways, was not, in fact, intent on racial extermination? "

It's not name-calling to point out Smith's admiration for a Holocaust denier. But please, point out to me how this is a person deserving of admiration.

Mr. Baker, I have always followed the polity of articulate and investigate. The issue of Mr. Joseph Sorban may be a valid one based on research, but the issue involving Ron Smith is not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Sobran

There is nothing I can find that would indicate a public statement, comment, on-air view that would tie Mr. Smith to any such claim.

http://redmaryland.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

I think Professor Vatz, addressed the issue to the matter of a credible standard.

It's always best to research a volatile comment before making it in order - as the saying goes - you don't get egg on your face.

Though I only listened to Ron Smith infrequently I can state unequivicably that I never heard him say anything remotely anti-semitic. He would comment from time to time on the propensity of the Jewish community to be politically liberal and voting against the communities own best interests. As far as blatant anti-semitism...never did I hear a negative word. I'm with Professor Vatz on this one. Seems like post mortus columny against Ron Smith describes this attack well.

Mr. Baker, as a retired cop when I hear the word evidence as in your quote: "the most damning piece of evidence," the question I have, where is it in the form of a quote, a broadcast, news article, or any substantive data to back up your claim.

Sadly Mr. Smith is not around to defend himself.

Mr. Baker, very familiar with the concept of circumstantial evidence. Look at what you just wrote. How does Pat Buchanan tie in with Ron Smith. Are you sure you don't mean - guilt by association? Sorry to say that does not meet the criteria of any level of evidence.

I'm friends with a ton of people but that does not mean I agree with their politics. You need to study your history and see how many historical documents there are that show things are always not as they appear.

http://www.hagalil.com/shoah/holocaust/greif-0.htm

Many other leaders of numerous occupied countries collaborated with the Nazis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kastner

The Military Channel has a whole series on those who collaborated with the Nazis during WW II. It may surprise you.

In the meantime if you were on the witness stand, you would be eaten alive by a first year law student.

As the U.S. Supreme Court has noted: "The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true."
Below is the full text of a letter which the Jewish Times abridged:
Part I:
The Judeao-Christian tradition gives pride of place to Truth. Unspeakably, this divine attribute was solely lacking in Towson University Rhetoric Prof. Richard Vatz’s recent vulgar and bullying submission to the Jewish Times (“Reason-able Discussion” March 9, 2012).
In sliming the author of a JT opinion piece outlining the anti-Jewish bias of Ron Smith, Dr. Vatz engaged in a level of breath-taking misrepresentation and falsification for which he would likely flunt a student in one of his classes.
For example, Prof. Vatz alleges that the original article said “Ron liked the political positions of Joseph Sobran,” who is a documented anti-Semite. What it actually said was that “By his own admission, Smith was a proud and ardent disciple of Joseph Sobran, about whom he enthused, on the air, that he agreed with everything that Sobran believed and wrote.” There is a big difference between “like” and “totally agree with it." Simple example: hitting 'like' on someone's Facebook page -or following them on Twitter - does not mean that you agree with everything they believe, say or do.


to be continued

Part II
Another example of Prof. Vatz’s “logic.” He claims that he knew Smith “for decades and never heard him make an anti-Jewish slur. Never.” So? Hillary Clnton never caught her husband Bill “in the act" with Monica. Does that mean it never occurred? Henry Kissinger claims never to have heard President Nixon utter anything anti-Jewish. The White House tapes prove otherwise.
A third Pinocchio moment: Prof.Vatz whimpers that Smth’s “favorite producer was Jewish; he had Jewish colleagues who revered him, and his guests sported many Jewish experts.” Can you say “all of my (fill-in-the-blank) are Jewish”? The classic anti-Semite defense is alive and well.
In an attempt to refute Smith’s racism, Prof. Vatz insists that Smith’s acquaintance with C4- and Gregory Kane disprove that. That would be C-4 of “Democrats for Ehrlich” fame and Sons of Confederate Veterans fanboy Gregory Kane. This duo’s views are as representative of that of the local Afro-American community as Mel Gibson is of Vatican II Catholicism or Bernard Madoff of Judaism’s ethical values.
As a professional educator, Prof. Vatz is expected to uphold the highest ethical standards and set an example of what constitutes honest argumentation. His egregious failure to do so in this instance speaks ill of him. Indeed, it makes one wonder what comparable liberties he may have taken in his scholarly work.

As to Vatz's 'non sequitur' blather on the Bloomberg height issue: here is Mr. Friedmann's full argument, which was shortened by the Jewish Times. It demonstrates an attentiveness to detail, sophistication, and depth of analytic rigor farl beyond Vatz's ken.
BEGIN TEXT:
"Smith's Jew-hatred even took the form of the snide demeaning and belittling of Jewish political figures.
For example, on the air, he would extol evangelical Christians, who wear their religion on their sleeve, portraying them as 'beleaguered and besieged'. At the same time, he continually reviled Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.)-a Jew who wore his (Orthodox) religion on his sleeve- as sanctimonious, sneeringly dubbing him "Holy Joe".
Smith regularly referred to neoconservative luminary William Kristol (who is AARP age!) as "Irving's boy" - but never called Christopher Buckley "Bill F.'s boy" - and Bill Buckley's name would be much better known to WBAL listeners than Irving Kristol's. Smith referred to New York City mayor (and J.H.U. distinguished alumnus) Michael Bloomberg as the "Little Mayor"- yet Smith himself was not that much taller than Bloomberg. As much as he disliked Bloomberg's policies, all the more so did he loathe those of Sen. Barbara Mikulski- who stands less than five feet tall. Yet, as much as Smith despised her liberalism, during all theyears that she has held various offices in Maryland I never once heard him refer to her as "wee Babs."
to be continued

Continuation

I do not recall either Sen. Mikulski or Sen Paul Sarbanes ever appearing as a guest on Smith’s program. In contrast, Sen. Ben Cardin, who is Jewish, frequently did. Yet Smith made a point of introducing him as Maryland’s “junior”Senator, while he never referred to Sen. Mikulski as such while she was in that status."
END Friedmann TEXT.

Further, even if Smith’s dealings with other WBAL employees or other individuals who claim to be Jewish were cordial, that is quite irrelevant to Friedmann's argument. Any Jew the least bit conversant with the history of anti-Semitism in America (with apparently excludes Professor Vatz! ) knows that Henry Ford was the most notorious anti-Semite of the early part of the 20th century, evidenced by his widespread dissemination of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Ford Motor Company employed numerous Jews. Yet none of them were discriminated against or treated any differently than the company’s non-Jewish employees, despite Henry Ford's well-publicized bias.

Lest we forget: for Ron Smith, trivialization of the Holocaust was, at best, a trivial matter.
Case in point: Ann Coulter was a welcome - and as much as her busy schedule allowed- a frequent phone-in guest on Smith’s radio program.
On Smith's January 14 2009 show, she took umbrage with liberals’ criticism of her attack upon single mothers in her most recent book – criticism which she characterized as a “Second Kristallnacht.” Even for her- who once famously declared that all Jews need to be 'perfected' by converting to Christianity- such a Holocaust reference is despicable and wholly inappropriate. Not surprisingly, she also then went out of her way to assail Holocaust survivor George Soros as a Nazi collaborator.
Whereas an upstanding and principled conservative such as David Brooks, Michael Gerson or George Will would have been outraged by such talk, not only did Ron Smith not challenge Coulter’s malice or take issue with her ridiculous assertions, he ate it up. Precisely the caliber of behavior that one would expect from a devoted acolyte of arch anti-Semite Joseph Sobran!
And the Coulter incident was typical.

Prof. Vatz contends that "Friedmann’s poorly researched calumny will not stain the preeminent talk show host Ron Smith’s memory among sophisticated people, only among gutless and desperate rumor-mongers." As the full-letter (above) demonstrates, Friedmann's piece was meticulously researched; and
Vatz's defense of Pat Buchanan et al. has earned him the opprobrium of the Baltimore Jewish community. No wonder his nickname on (the Towson) campus is
"Prof. Snickerdoodle" !

Vatz was also a former advisor to the White Student Union.

Enough said.

Good point, Steve!
Further: Vatz claims to be Jewish. He is as authentically Jewish as skinhead Daniel Burros and al-Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn (Pearlman)!