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Topic: Richard Vedder's real motivations?
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SBH
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Posted: 5/24/2013 5:10 PM
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The following was written by a former Akron political writer/now blogger.  Additional reports are that some of the funds supporting Vedder and others comes from the infamous Koch brothers:



 There they go again:  The Beacon Journal ran another op-ed piece by Richard Vedder, the conservative  Ohio University  economics professor emeritus who is being paid $150,000 a year to write his slants by an outfit named Donors Trust.  It is sort of a laundering operation that channels huge amounts of contributions to ideologically compatible "liberty-minded" charities.   Fine. But shouldn't the reader be told that? Vedder did disclose in his most recent column that a Forbes magazine ranking of college president salaries that he used for resource material was compiled by his own think tank. 
I've long believed that if you want a strong college degree,  become a conservative economist.  There's money in it.
L.C.
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Posted: 5/24/2013 9:53 PM
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Is this somehow related to football? If so, I missed the connection.
RSBobcat
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Posted: 5/24/2013 11:42 PM
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L.C. wrote:expand_more
Is this somehow related to football? If so, I missed the connection.


Here's my take-away - If you benefit from fat checks from special interests groups - and your "cred" is bolstered by the fact that you are an employee of OHIO - then why aren't you a Bobcat Club member - at even the measliest level? Especially since most who see your "cred" reference likely confuse it w/ Ohio A&M - unless of course you agree that OHIO athletics has brought more recognition to this fine institution than the Economics Dept...............
Robert Fox
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Posted: 5/25/2013 10:05 AM
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Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be audited soon.
jumper80
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Posted: 5/25/2013 11:24 AM
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no doubt
mf279801
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Posted: 5/25/2013 1:34 PM
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He's easily the best professor I had at OHIO (and he was well away from my major field of study), so leave him be.

Also, wrong forum.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 5/25/2013 2:11 PM
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mf279801 wrote:expand_more
He's easily the best professor I had at OHIO (and he was well away from my major field of study), so leave him be.

Also, wrong forum.


Is that the only class you made it to?  As for the forum, he has consistently been a critic of the amount of money spent on athletics particularly football so SBH's post is in exactly the right spot.
SBH
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Posted: 5/25/2013 2:50 PM
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I wonder how Richard Vedder would react if he discovered that Rod McDavis were using his position as an Ohio University employee to publish articles while also being paid $150,000 for that service by a shadow political organization.  Oh, I guarantee he would erupt in outrage on op-ed pages across the state.  His most recent piece, on salaries of university presidents, took a gratuitous swipe at McDavis in the first few paragraphs.  He's a (well-compensated) hypocrite.
mf279801
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Posted: 5/25/2013 4:55 PM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
He's easily the best professor I had at OHIO (and he was well away from my major field of study), so leave him be.

Also, wrong forum.


Is that the only class you made it to?  As for the forum, he has consistently been a critic of the amount of money spent on athletics particularly football so SBH's post is in exactly the right spot.


Biological Sciences, Class of 2005, Summa Cum Laude. I stand by my original statement. 

So what? The quoted portion of the article, and SBH's comments, are attacking Dr. Vedder for the sin of not being a leftist, nothing to do with football.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 5/25/2013 5:39 PM
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Dr. Vedder has accomplished more here in his field then probably anyone here. The guy is well respected in his work, even though we may not always agree with him.
SBH
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Posted: 5/25/2013 5:46 PM
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I don't really care whether or not he's conservative.  I question why he doesn't disclose that he is paid by a political group to write articles reflecting their viewpoints, all while the newspapers (which also pay him) have assumed he is being an honest proponent of a given viewpoint. And he does so while wearing the badge of "university professor." The lack of disclosure is rather troubling, and no one has addressed the question about how he would react if his boss did the same thing.  He's a hypocrite, whether well accomplished in his field or not.  


BillyTheCat
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Posted: 5/25/2013 6:07 PM
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SBH: I will agree he would be well served to disclose any outside interest of which he would be writing about.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 5/25/2013 8:57 PM
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mf279801 wrote:expand_more
He's easily the best professor I had at OHIO (and he was well away from my major field of study), so leave him be.

Also, wrong forum.


Is that the only class you made it to?  As for the forum, he has consistently been a critic of the amount of money spent on athletics particularly football so SBH's post is in exactly the right spot.


Biological Sciences, Class of 2005, Summa Cum Laude. I stand by my original statement. 

So what? The quoted portion of the article, and SBH's comments, are attacking Dr. Vedder for the sin of not being a leftist, nothing to do with football.


One would think that a scl grad would do a little research before standing by his statements.  This guy, I say again, has consistently questioned the amount of money spent on athletics in previous articles.  To echo SBH's statements, he's the master of milking the system as a purported expert in all aspects of educational funding both secondary and collegiate. 
Last Edited: 5/25/2013 8:58:00 PM by Alan Swank
colobobcat66
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Posted: 5/25/2013 9:01 PM
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Vedder should obviously disclose any conflict of interest in anything he writes about. He is, however, not the only professor on either side of the political spectrum who is supported/ financed by other entities. Did he do anything wrong other than not agree with the politics of certain people? Not sure what " honest proponent" means in a previous post. Does that mean if you're paid by somebody, than you're being dishonest in what you write. How interesting.
JSF
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Posted: 5/26/2013 2:23 AM
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Robert Fox wrote:expand_more
Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be audited soon.


I laughed.
mf279801
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Posted: 5/26/2013 11:31 AM
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SBH wrote:expand_more
I don't really care whether or not he's conservative.  I question why he doesn't disclose that he is paid by a political group to write articles reflecting their viewpoints, all while the newspapers (which also pay him) have assumed he is being an honest proponent of a given viewpoint. And he does so while wearing the badge of "university professor." The lack of disclosure is rather troubling, and no one has addressed the question about how he would react if his boss did the same thing.  He's a hypocrite, whether well accomplished in his field or not.  




Ahh. The reference to the "infamous Koch brothers" made me think that this wasn't just a polemic on the importance of disclosing one's funders, that there may have been some sort of partisan political slant to it.
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