Dan Rodricks and Fred Rasmussen are latest to exit Baltimore Sun amid ownership changes
Two longtime Baltimore Sun veterans have departed the newspaper following its 2024 acquisition by Sinclair Broadcast Group executive chairman David Smith and Armstrong Williams, marking the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the publication and another loss for legacy media.
Frederick N. Rasmussen, who spent more than 51 years chronicling the lives of Marylanders through his obituary writing, resigned Feb. 1, citing concerns about the paper’s new direction.
The inveterate newspaperman began his career in the Sun’s library in 1973, where he oversaw an archive of 7 million photographs before advancing to become an editorial assistant covering Baltimore County and later Carroll County in the paper’s county editions. The 77-year-old veteran journalist, known for his meticulous portraits of local figures ranging from mayors to locksmiths, expressed unease about the publication’s ideological shift under its new ownership.
“The ideological drift of the paper with the new owners is not my way of thinking,” Rasmussen told Baltimore Fishbowl.
The exodus also includes Dan Rodricks, in main photo, who at 70 is one of Baltimore’s most prominent journalists. His byline has appeared on more than 6,600 columns since 1979 making him a household name in Baltimore. He left the paper in January and has announced he will continue writing opinion pieces for The Contrarian Substack and Baltimore Fishbowl and reporting for Baltimore Brew.
Rodricks’ departure is particularly significant given his deep roots in Baltimore media. Beyond his extensive newspaper career, which began at The Evening Sun, he established himself as a multimedia presence through his work on WMAR-TV, WBAL-TV, and as host of WYPR’s “Midday” program and The Sun’s “Roughly Speaking” podcast.
Main photo via https://danrodricks.com/
