Somebody please alert Professor Dean Malotky of St. Olaf that his name is being used in vain. The prank has all the earmarks of being pulled off by a creative writing sophomore, on a dare -- probably while intoxicated.

A Counterpoint bearing his name, "The Danger of Labeling the Media as Liberal," (Star Tribune, March 16, 2002) responds to Katherine Kersten's article on Bernard Goldberg's thesis that the media are more liberal than the general population, and that their views affect not only editorials, but even news selection.

It all sounded pretty professorial until quoting the data "that 89 percent of Washington news bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, as opposed to 43 percent of other voters." The response was the clincher, "But this does nothing to prove that members of the media are more liberal than the rest of us. It only shows us that there is a greater percentage of liberals in the media than in the rest of the population."

Whew!! What can you do to top that? How about saying, "Why do the people with the greatest access to the inner workings of politics and governance - without actually being involved -- wind up voting for Democrats rather than Republicans? Could it be that what they learn on the job influences their vote?"

If conservatives were a protected minority, that statement might lead to criminal prosecution!

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