Free Republic

Though the City of Houston has backed off its demand for local area ministers to submit copies of their Sunday sermons to the City’s attorneys, it is now demanding copies of any non-sermon speeches they may have made. Mayor Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor, defended this blatant invasion of freedom of speech, arguing that “Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) is the law of this land. No one is entitled to speak out against the law, especially not church leaders.” “Churches have special exemptions from government taxes,” Parker pointed out. “As a quid-pro-quo for this benefit they ought to...

White House journalists are creating an alternative system for distributing their media “pool” reports in response to the Obama administration’s involvement in approving and disapproving certain content in official reports. A small group of reporters initiated an online forum this month in which they shared “pool” information among themselves, without White House involvement. The forum was set up by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which negotiates with the White House’s press staff over access for journalists. Pool reports — those summaries of the president’s public appearances that go to the news media at large and are used in countless...

Officials with the city of Houston, Texas, who are defending a controversial ordinance that would allow men to use women’s restrooms now have demanded to see the sermons preached by several area pastors. The recent move came in a subpoena from the city to pastors for copies of their sermons and other communications in the city’s legal defense of a “non-discrimination” measure that allows “gender-confused” people to use public restrooms designated for the opposite sex. A lawsuit challenging Houston’s move alleges the city violated its own charter in its adoption of the Equal Rights Ordinance, which in May designated homosexuals...

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, voiced his disagreement with the censorship imposed on the speeches from participants at the Synod. According to reports, the German Cardinal told a Catholic Television network, present for some of the sessions, that “All Christians have the right to be informed about the intervention of their bishops .” Instead, for the time being, information on the Synod is provided by the Director of the Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, assisted by an English-speaking priest and a Spanish-speaking one. In the briefing a generic panorama of the...

As if on cue, settled-science believer Auden Schendler delivered a punishing retort in The Aspen Times to my recent column “Inconvenient Truths Denied By Climate Faithful.” Archie Bunker-like in frustration, Schendler wants me to stifle myself. If I don’t “dummy up” like Archie’s wife, Edith, he suggests Aspen Times editors Think Again before publishing my commentary without peer reviews or risk “being complicit in promoting falsehoods.” Schendler calls this “ground-truthing of scientific claims,” noting that the Los Angeles Times doesn’t publish pieces that “deny established climate science.” Like Robert Kennedy Jr., who recently called for the jailing of treasonous nonconformists...

Prof. John Banzhaf has filed a petition asking the FCC to revoke the broadcast license of stations that use the word “Redskins.” Some “longtime participants in the FCC regulatory process” — including former FCC chair Reed Hundt — have likewise argued that, It is impermissible under law that the FCC would condone, or that broadcasters would use, obscene pornographic language on live television. This medium uses government owned airwaves in exchange for an understanding that it will promote the public interest. Similarly, it is inappropriate for broadcasters to use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday reporting. Current FCC chair...

Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. opined that those skeptical of the dangers of climate change ought to be silenced. "I'm really tired of arguing with these people," Kennedy complained. "It's a drain on my energy. It takes time away from restructuring society along more socially beneficial lines." Kennedy suggested that "climate skeptics should be put on trial at the Hague as 'war criminals.' Whether people realize it or not, we are at war for the planet's future. On one side are those who want to save the planet. On the other are people who want to stop us from...

Russia's mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has officially asked social network Facebook, e-mail service Gmail, and microblogging site Twitter to register in Russia as "organizers of information distribution." Media reports in Russia quoted Roskomnadzor's deputy chairman, Maksim Ksenzov, as telling the "Izvestia" newspaper that the move had been made in accordance with a new law on Internet companies and bloggers. In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law binding mail services and social networks to place personal data about Russian users only on servers in Russia as of September 2016. The law also requires bloggers with more than 3,000 daily...

It's not often that the press exposes its own bias. But a Washington Post story this week reveals both the Obama administration's attempts to censor the news and the media's complicity in that effort.

"The Rush Limbaugh Show" on Wednesday accused a "small number of hardcore political activists" and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of being behind a two-year-old Stop Rush protest that amounts to "blackmail" of small business people who advertise with the high-profile conservative talk-show host. In a release issued on Businesswire.com, Limbaugh’s show fired back at the smear campaign against him: “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s newest email spam, asking their recipients to sign a petition calling for sponsors to end their relationship with The Rush Limbaugh Show, is based on the two-year old Stop Rush political protest as its inspiration....

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas. Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could...

It has taken five-and-a-half years to learn that the Obama administration has been censoring White House print pool reports—and that the media has quietly acquiesced until now. The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi reported Tuesday evening that the Obama administration has abused its role as distributor for the print pool reports by exercising prior restraint on the reports. Farhi cites numerous instances where the Obama press office refused to release pool reports until changes demanded by Obama operatives were made. Farhi reports several examples of reporters acquiescing to Obama’s censorship of the media. Farhi reports on the Washington Post caving twice...

During the Bush administration, national Democrat leaders threatened to kill the ABC network's broadcast license if a miniseries unfavorable to the Clinton administration wasn't censored to satisfy Democrats. ABC complied.

Can Touré Neblett not see the incandescent irony of his statement? His show-ending rant on The Cycle today condemned the censorship of the shocking images of war. Railed Touré: "we're blocked from seeing so much of the cost of war, of the evil of war as if we are too sensitive or squeamish or unable to handle the graphic truth." Touré focused on one particular photo, taken by photojournalist Kenneth Jarecke during the first Gulf War, deploring the fact that AP refused to publish it. Incredibly, Touré then proceeded to . . . censor the photo himself, declaring that "it's...

(RNS) Arkansas State is removing a Christian cross decal from the back of its football helmets after a complaint that it violated separation of church and state, the university said Wednesday (Sept. 10). Athletics director Terry Mohajir said he wanted to fight the decision because the decal was intended to honor former player Markel Owens and equipment manager Barry Weyer, who both died this year. However, Mohajir said he had little choice but to follow advice from the university’s legal counsel to remove or modify the symbol. “My job is to support our players and our coaches in their expression...

Concerned that “unelected persons might defame elected officials,” the New York Board of Elections has declared that no one may criticize a sitting officeholder without first forming a “political action committee.” Executive Director Todd Valentine asserted that “the notion that everyone is free to say whatever they want about members of the government is a misunderstanding of the concept of freedom of speech. If you’re talking about or to another private citizen you can say whatever you want. But if you want to criticize the governor, mayor, or a member of the legislature or city council you need to file...

A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. [... ] It appears the agency did push back. On May 2, 2012, he emailed the CIA a new opening to the story with a subject line that asked, “does this look better?”

Silicon Valley firms were prepared this week to quickly block video of an Islamic State militant beheading an American journalist after a previous video by the same group showing the death of James Foley ricocheted through social networks in what was seen by some as a propaganda coup for the extremists. The video Tuesday showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff was first uploaded onto a different website and quickly deleted when copied onto YouTube, slowing the spread of posts linking to it, said a Silicon Valley insider, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

Anonymous comments, even positive ones, damage trust in the news media. Despite their ubiquity on news sites around the Internet, a movement against anonymous comments sections has slowly gathered steam over the past few years. The first call to action came in 2010 when the American Journalism Review said, “It is time for news sites to stop allowing anonymous online comments.” Since that bold declaration, a wide variety of media outlets, including ESPN, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Sporting News and USA Today have either banned anonymous posts on their sites or eliminated comments sections altogether. In August 2013, the...

The Chicago Blackhawks will no longer play "The Stripper" during their Shoot the Puck contest after hearing from fans who found the song demeaning to women, a team spokesperson said Wednesday. Blackhawks fans recently have been voicing their opinions about the song and a few other Blackhawks practices they deem sexist. The push for change picked up after Marissa Miller, 31, of Chicago, started gathering online signatures Aug. 6 for a petition for the Blackhawks to treat their female fans the same as their male ones.