Introduction:
   Since the publication of the three volumes about the editorial ethics of The Daily Review, BCAD has done and will be doing more analysis of the paper. Criteria for these additional BCAD Comments are found in the three volumes. Standards for editorial ethics are found in Volume I. Explanations about plagiarism and why it is wrong can be found in Volume I, section I. C., and in Volume II. Criteria for evaluating columnists are found in the Introduction of Volume III. These reports, Volume I - III, are found on this website and the printed publications are in Bradford County libraries.

21. Motko: Brooks Eldredge-Martin noted in a letter to the editor (12/22/01) that he wept in emotional release after a Bradford County Regional Arts Council building project was complete. In commenting on this self disclosure, David Motko ridiculed Eldredge-Martin: "After reading Eldredge-Martin's letter, I felt I should head down to the Keystone Theatre and give this poor creature a big hug. You know, to kind of buck him up, and while doing so look for any sharp objects which might be lying around, maybe get him to consider some counseling. ... We might be talkin' "Suicide Hotline" stuff now!" David Motko, TDR,1/7/02
   BCAD Comment: The members of the BCAD Editorial Board all know Brooks as a very self-confident, accomplished community leader, self-confident enough to write the letter he wrote. We also recognize that Motko thought he was being funny. However, joking about suicide is never appropriate and can be grounds for legal action. Distinguishing what is appropriate, accurate, honest, or ethical are not capabilities David Motko has demonstrated, as thoroughly documented in Vol. III or in many of the following BCAD evaluations of Motko's writings. Apparently Publisher James Towner is comfortable in his decision to continue printing Motko's columns, replete with personal attacks, name calling, insinuations, misrepresentations, and unsubstantiated allegation. Unfortunately, the unsavory notoriety of David Motko's columns are emerging as Mr. Towner's hallmark as Publisher.

20. Motko: "Taxpayers who have been mugged and forced to turn over their hard-earned money so Eldredge- Martin and others in his "special interest" group can have "their" theater"' ... "the Keystone Threatre is one of those pork barrel projects where there seems to be no limit to the amount of money politicians are willing to squander." David Motko, TDR, 1/7/02
   BCAD Comment - Hypocricy: First, as we noted in Vol III, Section A. 3., "When it comes to himself, apparently David Motko sees no problem in getting paid by the taxpayers." He was paid by the taxpayers as a State Trooper even when his performance was evaluated as "totally unacceptable."¹ He was paid by the taxpayers through the federal Stop Violence Against Women Act grant. He misrepresented his performance in the job to the public in his columns.² Now, David Motko is getting paid by The Daily Review, a private for-profit firm, which recently has had a new production plant built in Towanda Township using, in part, a low interest government loan. If David Motko really believed what he writes about government programs, he would be writing columns about how the taxpayers are helping foot the bill for a financially successful, for-profit firm, the Towanda Printing Co. For the record, BCAD does not have a problem with well targeted business loans to help improve a local economy. We are merely highlighting David Mokto's self-serving hypocrisy.
   Finally, it is worth noting that many citizens have been supporting the Bradford County Regional Arts Council (BCRAC) with their personal donations and attendance at BCRAC productions; that special BCRAC early learning programs are brought into our schools to educate all our children about art and music, regardless of their families' income or the location of their school; and that many children participate in plays at the Keystone, Rialto, and Sayre Theatres. We think that supporting BCRAC is a good public investment in our children's future. The success of the BCRAC approach to the arts and education has gained national recognition. This has help generate more funding for BCRAC programs, which in turn have benefitted more children.
   (Source: ¹Memorandum and Order, Motko v. Sharpe, et al, Civil docket for Case #: 89-CV-1677, p.4; In July 2001, at the request of the BCAD, Asher Morris, Esq. obtained copies of the Motko v. Sharpe, et al court transcript concerning David Motko and his law suit against the Pennsylvania State Police from the Federal Record Center in Philadelphia (215-671-8241. These records are located in Box 5 of 18, accession 021-92-0244, location A 42-011-401; ² Evaluation of David Motko's Writings,Vol. III, Section II. A. 2.)

Updated January 4, 2002:

19. Motko: "Unless people of integrity are elected to fill the nine board seats [in the Towanda Public School], those words [Section 601 of the school code] are meaningless and the entire operation can become a sham."... "I have it on good authority that whenever a board member attempts to challenge what he believes to be wasteful spending, he is ostracized by a clique within the board." David Motko, TDR, 12/30/01
   BCAD Comment - Insinuation and unsubstantiated allegation: The implication of the first quote is that the Towanda School Board members are not people of integrity. Motko provides no proof for this insinuation. The second, if Motko has something on good authority, why doesn't he provide the source? Just how "good" is this so called "authority?" Motko is indulging in the smear tactics of innuendo.

17. Fennell: "In my opinion, the fact that we have openly gay adolescents in our schools says it all about what liberals have done to our nation." Editor Ian Fennell, TDR, 12/22/01
   BCAD Comment: We thank Mr. Fennell for acknowledging the result of liberals' efforts to promote in practice the principles of love and toleration.

16. Motko: "[Rush] Limbaugh, through boundless humor, unmatched wit and ability to make the most complicated issues understandable, helped level the field and validate what a great many Americans already believed about the media." David Motko, TDR, 12/20/01
   BCAD Comment: We understand why David Motko admires Rush Limbaugh. Following are a list of books evaluating Rush Limbaugh's honesty and logic: "The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Errors: Over 100 Outrageously False and Foolish Statements from American's Most Powerful Radio and TV" (sic) by Steve Rendall, 1995; "Logic and Mr. Limbaugh: A Dittohead's Guide to Fallacious Reasoning" by Don Jacobs, 1994; "The Great Limbaugh Con: And Other Right-Wing Assaults on Common Sense" by Charles Kelly, 1994; "A Public Rebuttal to Rush Limbaugh" by Cecil Mahurin, 1993; "Why Rush Limbaugh is Wrong" by Michael Rahman. All of these books were listed as available on Amazon.com as of 1/1/02.

15. Motko: "What was Boulder's domestic violence slogan? "Hang'em Out to Dry." ... "Hanging inside the "public library" [in Boulder, Colorado,] on a clothesline were 21 phalli. ".... "I feel this is the same theme our local Abuse and Rape Crisis Center carried into one of Towanda's schools last February. I formed this opinion after reading the lead Magazine story in the Feb. 4 Review..."... "One young writer"... [wrote,] "Boys are usually abusers. Girls are usually victims." David Motko, TDR, 12/13/01
   BCAD Comment - : There is no connection between what an organization in Boulder, Colorado, may or may not have done and the responsible and tasteful practices used consistently by the Abuse and Rape Crisis Center in Bradford County, PA. To suggest otherwise, as Motko has, is dishonest. He provides no proof of this. Second, the young writer's statement, whom Motko quoted, is correct. This was thoroughly documented in Vol. III, Section II.A.2.

14. Motko: "A strong religious underpinning and faith in God was as much a part of the average colonist's life as was the ax and iron skillet." David Motko, TDR, 12/9/01
   BCAD Comment - Negligent Ignorance: In 1776, there were more male than female colonists¹ compared to today when females outnumber males. Colonial men were more likely to be found in a saloon than in church if their church attendance is any indication. "On the eve of the Revolution only about 17% of Americans were churched,²" were involved in any church. Seventeen percent is not in shouting distance of the "average" which Motko referred to. This raises a question, just where does Motko get his information about what the "average colonist's" religious practices were? After all, 83% of the colonists would not have been likely models for a charming calendar picture of a wholesome, colonial family dressed in plain cloth, with 5 - 10 healthy children, each with a cute bonnet on, walking to church through the falling snow. (Sources: ¹ "Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970", Bicentennial Edition, Part 1 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1975), page22; ² Finke, Roger and Stark, Rodney, "The Churching of America 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy",(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992), page 15.)

13. Motko: In trying to discuss the origin of the First Amendment, Motko writes, "In 1779 he [no reference] formed an alliance with George Wythe, Edmond Pendelton and James Madison and in 1786 managed to succeed in pushing through the Virginia legislature the Bill"... [for religious freedom, church-state separation]. ..... One group, however, had an official "church of state" in their homeland and that was the English." David Motko, TDR, 12/9/01
   BCAD Comment - Negligent Ignorance: Motko misrepresents the extent to which establishment churches ("official church of state") existed in colonial times. It was not just England that had an establishment church. In 1779, virtually all European countries had "establishment" laws that designated one religion as the state sanctioned/sponsored religion and/or had "religious test laws" requiring a citizen to pledge faith to a specific religion in order to hold public office. But more to the point, Connecticut did not dis-establish a church until 1818, New Hampshire in 1819, Massachusetts in 1833, and Maryland only did it formally in 1933, to mention a few. These delays occurred because when Congress adopted the Bill of Rights in 1792, these were not considered binding the states' constitutions. Furthermore, religious test laws were only abandoned by the states in: 1790 - PA, 1792 - DE, GA and SC, 1844 - NJ, 1879 - NH, and 1961 - MD, to list seven of the original thirteen colonies. For the record, the first colonies to dis-establish religion, the start of religious liberty were Pennsylvania in 1682 and Virginia in 1776.
   The issue of church-state separation was vigorously and contentiously debated in state capital after state capital throughout the 1800's. In 1940, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in Cantwell v. Connecticut that the First Amendment's right to religious liberty (establishment clause, church-state separation) also applied to the states. However, by this time the debate about church-state separation had run its course, almost all the states had legally embraced church-state separation by 1940, and almost everyone agreed that church-state separation was essential to our religious freedoms. (Source: Kramnick, Isaac, and Moore, R. Laurence, The Godless Constitution: the case against religious correctness, (New York, NY: Norton & Co.,1996), pages 33, 43, 49, 83, 110, 99, 115, & 118)

12. Motko: "The English over time became the most dominant [group in early America] as evidenced by the adoption of English as our language and English Common Law as our legal standard." David Motko, TDR, 12/9/01
   BCAD Comment - Negligent Ignorance: The English Common Law is not our legal standard. The Constitution of the United States and our case law are the standards.

11. Motko: "Somehow along the way the anti-God, loony-liberal left and the American Civil Liberties Union have managed through the federal courts to "flimflam" the First Amendment." David Motko, TDR, 12/9/01
   BCAD Comment - Name Calling and Negligent Ignorance: Given the extent of the Motko's misinformation in his column of Dec. 9th (see # 12 - 14 above), there should be little question about who is the real "flimflam" artist.

10. Motko: "Is the [Towanda School] administration being open and candid with the School Board...? ... On the latter I answer No! .... I make this judgement based on what I believe to be very reliable information." David Motko, TDR, 12/8/01
   BCAD Comment - Unsubstantiated allegation: Why isn't Mokto providing the source of that information?

9. Motko: "As is my practice, I went to the books to see what the experts had to say about the school consolidation issue and found there hadn't been many relevant writings on this topic." David Motko, TDR, 12/8/01
   BCAD Comment - Negligent Ignorance: Our internet search for material on "school consolidation" generated 3,180 hits including whole journals devoted to this topic. (Source - as of 1/1/02: www.google.com/search?q=%22school+ consolidation%22& btnG=Google+Search)

8. Worth: "No nation that has ever turned its back on God has ever survived." Rev. Charles Worth, TDR, 12/6/01
   BCAD Comment: How does Rev. Worth know this? Taliban government, which was about as theologically God centered as any government in history, did not turn away from God. Yet the Taliban government has been completely destroyed in the last several months. According to Worth's theology, the Taliban should be riding high.

7. Worth: "In our modern nation, the truth of the matter is that there is no truth.".... "Back to the separation of church and state. This, my friend, is going to happen."... Rev. Charles Worth, TDR, 12/6/01
   BCAD Comment - Non-sequitur: Which is it: "there is no truth" or its is true that separation of church and state "is going to happen?"

6. Worth: "While we try to stay the changes to our country's founding principals [sic], remember that with each loss we come one day closer to the coming of the Lord."... "Unfortunately, for us that believe in the Bible, it has no gray areas."..."It is only a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ that can bring men to salvation." Rev. Charles Worth, TDR, 12/6/01
   BCAD Comment - Non-sequitur:If the Lord's coming will be hastened by "changes to our country's founding principals," [sic] as Rev. Worth seems to be suggesting, why isn't he working to undermine these principals [sic], rather than "stay" these, in order to bring " men to salvation" sooner?

5. Motko: "Readers who follow my column are aware ... I've devoted considerable time to the subject of public education. Having spent countless hours researching this topic and seeing first hand the behind-the-scenes goings-on, I can say without equivocation that what I have learned is depressing." David Motko, TDR, 12/6/01
   BCAD Comment - Disinformation: #10 above is an example of David Motko's commitment to research. BCAD thoroughly documented (Vol. III) Motko's misinformation, his shoddy and unsubstantiated claims about public schools, and the fact that his claims of first hand information about school and other organizations are frequently baseless. The real issue is how Publisher Jim Towner can sleep at night knowing he continues to publish Motko's loose cannon, ad hominem attacks on our local volunteer School Board members, teachers, and others after reading BCAD's Evaluation of David Motko's Writings.

4. Motko: "How does giving vouchers to a parent so they can take their child out of our failing schools violate this [separation of church and state clause of the First Amendment] right? (We do it all the time under the G.I. Bill!)" David Motko, TDR 11/25/01
   BCAD Comment - Disinformation: First, in BCAD's Evaluation of David Motko's Writings we explained (Vol.III, pages 14 - 15) why there is a difference between the G.I. Bill and vouchers as it relates to the First Amendment. Ignoring this information, Motko just repeats his fallacious assertion. Second, to understand why the citizens in state after state have rejected all voucher referenda for over 50 years, see "Myth 5" in A Celebration of Public Education. As to "failing schools," see "Myth 1" in A Celebration of Public Education. We suspect that Motko calculates that if he repeats his disinformation often enough, people will believe him. Apparently, Publisher Jim Towner approves of this tactic because he continues to publish Motko's columns.

3. Motko: "God is an integral part of this nation and God is mentioned in documents dating back to its [the nation's] formation." David Motko, TDR, 11/25/01
   BCAD Comment - Negligent Ignorance: To say that "God is an integral part of this nation" is a theological statement. Apparently, Motko believes the United States is a theocracy. Americans certainly have had up-close and personal encounters with several theocracies. The theocratic Iranian government participated in holding U.S. citizens hostage in 1978 -1980. The Taliban government was a theocracy. The religious leaders of these governments claim Allah is "an integral part" of their nation.
  Second, it is true that God is mentioned in documents going back to the start of our nation, as Motko mentions. However, these documents are religious tracts, letters by legislators, some states' documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers. But none of these are governing documents of the United States. In the only document that counts , the Constitution of the United States, God is not mentioned. This is not because the founding fathers felt God was unimportant, but because they were establishing a secular society in which religious freedom for everyone was to be respected.

2. Motko: "The public's en masse turning to God for help in this time of crisis has sent the Religious Police and its legal arm, the American Civil Liberties Union, reeling." David Motko, TDR, 11/25/01
   BCAD Comment - Unsubstantiated allegation: We doubt David Motko has any idea of how most individuals responded to the 9/11 attack. Certainly, many people who are church attenders turned to their congregations and churches for support and comfort, but most citizens are not church attenders. Between 1960 and 1990, church attendance declined by about 15% to 20%, resulting in only about 35% to 40% of the U.S. population remaining as church goers. Concurrently, the number of individuals who identify themselves as having no religion increased by 9%.* It may be that the non-church attending individuals turned to their friends and families for comfort and reassurance. However, Motko has no evidence that the public turned "en masse ... to God," whatever "en masse" might mean. Perhaps they did, but he cannot know that. Regardless of how people responded, there is also no evidence that the American Civil Liberties Union was sent "reeling." This is just another example of Motko's addiction to the rhetorical flourish that is empty of meaningful content. (*Source: Putnam, Robert, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community", New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, p. 70.)

Updated November 2001:

1. Motko: “As an op-ed writer I realize that my opinion has more exposure than the average citizen. Therefore, I have a duty to research my topic and present it in a factual, logical and responsible manner.” David Motko, TDR, 10/7/01
   BCAD Comment - Hypocrisy: As BCAD has thoroughly documented in Volume III, Motko’s “writings regularly include pejorative insinuations and unsubstantiated allegations, and blatantly disregard or misrepresent thoroughly documented facts. ... Furthermore, his endless, angry diatribes are patched together with illogical strawman arguments, non-sequiturs, and apples to oranges comparisons. Perhaps most damaging to our community is David Motko’s regular misrepresentation and distortion of information. This pattern is so extensive that The Daily Review should be printing a disclaimer before Motko’s columns warning the public that the “information” he presents is likely to be false.”(Source: "Conclusion," Evaluation of David Motko’s Writings: A Reflection of The Daily Review’s Ethical Standards, Volume III, Bradford County Alliance for Democracy,Oct. 2001) Posted October 25, 2001.

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