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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Regarding Leon's pro-Mastro bias, my (perhaps unwanted) two cents: I happen to think Leon has tremendous integrity. The fact that he deals with this site with all the BS he catches suggests something about his personality. And if you know him at all, you know what a decent guy he is. And I don't think the relatively minor ad dollars he receives from Mastro tilts his opinion in any kind of meaningful manner. I think he is prejudiced towards Mastro because he knows the players involved and he believes in THEIR integrity. That's fair and Leon's belief about someone's integrity (or lack thereof) goes a long way with me.

As for Jay's suggestion about Leon's receipt of ad dollars impacting his judgement, Jay is right in the sense that such a relationship at least has the appearance of impropriety. For a rough analogy, if one makes a motion to recuse a judge due to the appearance of prejudice on the judge's part against the moving litigant, often judges will recuse themselves even though they state unequivocally that they can be fair to both sides -- but for the sake of the system working, the appearance of prejudice is enough to warrant recusal. And for the record, I believe wholeheartedly in Jay's integrity as well. There aren't all that many people out here that I would say such a thing about but Jay and Leon are two of them.