KO Public Affairs Again Pushing Clients Using Center Maryland

KO's continued involvement once more raises questions about potential bias with The Baltimore Banner

KO Public Affairs is again using their “media outlet” Center Maryland to push information about their clients.

In a recent podcast, Center Maryland host and KO Public Affairs principal Damian O’Doherty used an interview with Jeff Salkin to talk about The Baltimore Banner.

Note the verbiage used: and look at the future of news in Baltimore where the soon-to-be-launched Baltimore Banner is set to shake up the fourth estate.

As we have mentioned before, Center Maryland is a highly suspect “news outlet” that is owned by KO Public Affairs. KO Public Affairs is a Democratic public relations and lobbying firm. And as we have noted before, KO Public Affairs is handling the public relations for The Baltimore Banner and was also involved with potential efforts to seize The Baltimore Sun by eminent domain.

This of course is nothing new. As far back as 2010, observers on both the right and the left called out Center Maryland for being little more than a thinly-veiled front organization used to promote KO Public Affairs clients:

The difference with Center Maryland is the undisclosed role of corporate money and the deceptive claim of providing objective news. Center Maryland founders Steve Kearney, Damian O’Doherty and Howard Libit make their living representing clients “where business, government, politics and media meet.” The nexus between the founders’ business interests and Center Maryland’s coverage suggests that the site allows those industries that hire Kearney O’Doherty to spread their viewpoints disguised as “the news you need, straight down the middle.”

Even then, Center Maryland was tight-lipped about its interests and who they represented.

They of course have also mixed their “reporting” with their lobbying interests on more than one occasion as well.

The real question of all of this is whether or not we can trust the content on The Baltimore Banner. If The Banner continues to stay in bed with a group like KO that masquerades their paid lobbying activities behind the thinnest veneer of “journalism”, is The Banner’s operation going to be run in a similar “pay-to-play” way?

Over and over, Center Maryland has been what we have always known; that they are far from “News Straight Down the Middle”. Let’s hope The Banner doesn’t follow their tainted legacy.